October 12, 2022 4.30 pm This story is over 27 months old

More than 350 patients waited over 30 hours at Lincoln A&E

The hospital trust is working to tackle the problem

The pressure continues to mount as more than 350 patients had stays of longer than 30 hours in A&E at Lincoln County Hospital this summer, including patients on drips in the hospital’s waiting room.

The longest wait at the hospital was almost 50 hours, according to United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT) which runs Lincoln County Hospital, Boston Pilgrim, Grantham & District Hospital.

When asked if there was a particular problem in Lincoln, ULHT’s Chief Executive Andrew Morgan told BBC Look North: “I often say when I’m out talking to the public, if you go to a hotel and it’s full don’t expect to get a room for the night. We’re no different and again this morning (Tuesday) we had 47 people across our sites waiting for a bed.

“Whilst that’s taking place new ambulances arriving, new walk-ins arriving, A&E becomes really busy.

“We’ve got 173 people (as of Tuesday morning) in our beds at the moment who are medically fit, they don’t need to be in our beds.”

Patients on drips in the waiting room at Lincoln County Hospital. | Screenshot: BBC Look North

In response to what it will be like this winter, he added: “I think I’d be disabusing others of the reality if I said it’s not going to be a difficult winter. We are doing lots of things to try and tackle that, so we’re taking advice from all sorts of experts around the country, we’ve opened more capacity than we’ve ever had, we’ve increased our staffing, but hospitals are about flow ultimately, you can’t admit at the front door if you can discharge them from the back door.”

The BBC also said that according to figures 355 patients waited for at least 30 hours in A&E at Lincoln County Hospital between June and July this year. The number waiting that long at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston were significantly lower. However, one patient in Boston waited more than 50 hours in June before being admitted or discharged, while the longest wait in Lincoln was 49 hours and 30 minutes in July.