Thousands of West Hertfordshire patients waiting over a year for treatment

New data shows there are around 2,770 patients who have been waiting for treatment at hospitals in West Hertfordshire for over a year.

National targets suggest that the vast majority of patients – 92 per cent – should start their hospital treatment within 18 weeks of referral.

But in August, just 51 per cent of those referred to Watford General, Hemel Hempstead or St Albans City hospitals had been waiting for 18 weeks or less.

The data is contained in a report which was prepared for a meeting of the West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospital Trust board on Thursday (October 5).

According to the report, 578 trust patients have already been waiting for 65 weeks or longer. And 14 of those have been waiting for 78 weeks or more.

Meanwhile data presented to the board also shows how long patients are waiting for treatment in the emergency department.

National targets suggest that 95 per cent of patients seeking emergency treatment should be admitted or discharged within four hours.

But the average emergency wait for patients who were not admitted in August was five hours and 21 minutes.

And those who were admitted waited for an average of seven hours 47 minutes.

There were, according to the data, 775 people who were in the department for 12 hours or longer.

Overall the number of people seeking treatment at the Emergency Department remained high, with more than 14,850 attendances.