TWO in five patients attending major A&E at the North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust (NCIC) waited longer than four hours to be dealt with last month, figures show.

In November at the NCIC, 59 per cent of the 8,672 attendances at type 1 A&E departments were dealt with within four hours, according to NHS England.

Type 1 departments provide major emergency services and are equipped with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care.

These departments also account for the majority of attendances nationally.

These figures fall short of NHS guidance, which states that 95 per cent of patients who attend A&E should be admitted to hospital, transferred elsewhere or discharged within four hours.

The data also means that 41 per cent of patients attending these departments across the NCIC waited longer than four hours to be seen.

This figure stood at 45 per cent in October 2022 and 30 per cent a year earlier in November 2021.

READ MORE: New Census data shows how composition of Carlisle households has changed

In response to the figures, Dr Adrian Clements, executive medical director at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust said: "Like all parts of the NHS, we are currently under considerable pressure in north Cumbria.

"Patients in our emergency departments are experiencing long waits to be admitted due to a shortage of available beds in our hospitals and community settings.

"This shortage is largely due to the challenges we face in discharging patients who no longer require medical treatment.

"For many of our patients, it is only possible to go home  if they have the right care packages to support them. Pressures in social care mean this often cannot be done in a timely way.

"As a result, we can have up to 200 patients at any one time in our hospital beds who are fit to be discharged but can’t go home safely."

Dr Clements also stressed the commitment of the NCIC to dealing with this issue.

He said: "Long waits for admission and unnecessarily long stay in hospital are potentially harmful and well below the standard of care we want to provide.

"We are doing everything within our power to keep patients safe in our emergency department and to alleviate these pressures by working with the local authority to look at initiatives such as opening more beds in residential care homes and developing a single joint recruitment arrangement."

READ MORE: £53,000 raised for late firefighter and rugby player's family in 6 days