North East A&E patients have slammed long waiting times with low scores in a recent national survey conducted to measure patient satisfaction for NHS services.

Results from the Care Quality Commission’s Urgent and Emergency Care Survey 2022 have shown that patients who attended A&E centres across Durham, Darlington and Teesside last year have awarded their provider an average of 4.3 out of ten for their experience waiting.

In the survey, patients were given the option to express their views on everything from waiting times, their care and treatment and their experience with doctors themselves in both Type 1 A&E centres and Type 3 urgent care departments.

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Responses have now revealed that users from North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have ranked their waiting experience an average of 4.3.

For County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, this feedback is welcomed as they strive to see patients within the national target of four hours.

A spokesperson for the trust said: “We welcome the results of the Care Quality Commission Urgent & Emergency Care Survey. It is very important that our patients are happy with both the care they receive and their overall experience whilst in our care and we continuously seek to improve our patients’ experience.  

“Nationally, there is a target that by March 2024, 76% of patients attending hospital for emergency or urgent care, should be seen within 4 hours.  We are on course to achieve this target; indeed, we are almost achieving it now, despite increasing numbers of patients attending our urgent and emergency departments at our Durham and Darlington hospitals - 23,485 in June alone.”

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The trust also clarified that upon arrival, priority is given to those who may need care the most, which would influence waiting times for some other less urgent patients.

Despite the verdict on waiting times being low, North East respondents were overall pleased with the care they received from doctors and nurses, with users of all three trusts awarding them an average score of 8.1 out of ten.

Chief Nurse at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hilary Lloyd, has said the trust accepts the feedback and seeks to put it into practice.

She said: “We’re delighted to see these results as we pride ourselves on our commitment to providing high-quality compassionate patient care and we know how hard our staff work to achieve this.

“Feedback like this is particularly important as it helps us see what we’re doing well and allows us to focus on how we can improve.

“We’re proud to see these scores and to hear that patients are happy with the emergency and urgent care they have received; this is a real credit to our dedicated staff.”

A spokesperson for North Tees and Hartlepool Trust said: “North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust is reviewing the data from the survey.

“The Trust has a programme of continuous improvement to ensure services are optimum for the patients we support.”

However, patient dissatisfaction with waiting times has prompted Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham to state the service is “on its knees” as he claims the government is not giving the NHS the support it needs.

“After thirteen years of Conservative Government the NHS has been starved of funds and brought to its knees. Our NHS staff do a tremendous job in difficult circumstances – which is reflected in the survey responses – but are hampered by a government that is unwilling to give them the resources and support they need.

“What our NHS needs is a government that cares about it and will make sure it has the resources and staff it needs to function.”

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Comparing this to the national picture, the survey showed that patients across the board were evidently facing longer waiting times than in 2020.

17% of patients in A&E’s waited more than four hours to be seen last year, compared with 4% in 2020.

Out of 26,601 respondents to the survey into A&E departments, 8446 people, equal to 32% waited more than sixty minutes to see a doctor – a figure that has increased from 15% recorded in 2020.