The time it takes to get patients from accident and emergency to a ward bed – a key indicator of hospital pressure – is at its longest ever, according to latest data from NHS England.
In October, more than 30% of people admitted to hospital from A&E had to wait more than four hours for a bed after the decision was made to admit them.
It comes as an increase from 27% the month before and from 18% in October 2019.
Meanwhile, the percentage of people being seen in A&E in less than four hours is at an all-time low – down to 74% overall.
The percentage has dropped from 75% in September and 84% in October 2019.
NHS England also highlighted that a record number of calls were answered by 999 at 1,012,143 in October.
However, some of these calls related to the same incident and the actual number of individual incidents was 747,472.
This compared to 745,446 in October 2020 and 741,514 in October 2019 so the figures are similar to previous months.
