Nearly two-thirds of people who arrived at accident and emergency at the North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust hospitals (NCIC) last month were seen within four hours, new figures show.

The NHS standard is for 95 per cent of patients to be seen within four hours. However, as part of a recovery plan, the health service has an objective for 78 per cent of patients to be seen within this time frame.

Recent NHS England figures show there were 11,526 visits to A&E at NCIC in June. Of them, 7,607 were seen within four hours – accounting for 66 per cent of arrivals.

1,134 patients waited longer than four hours, including 407 who were delayed by more than 12 hours.

The overall number of attendances to A&E at NCIC in June was a drop of 4 per cent on the 11,967 visits recorded during May, and 2 per cent lower than the 11,740 patients seen in June 2023.

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A spokesperson for NCIC said: “The latest data shows some promise as we improve in multiple areas.

“Across our emergency departments we have seen a slight fall in attendances and admissions, during June. We have been able to see patients in A&E quicker, seeing over half within 4 hours (58.9 per cent).

“Almost everybody who attended our Urgent Treatment Centres were seen within 4 hours (98.2 per cent).

“We are very pleased that we have improved, and we are still doing all that we can to make sure patients are being seen and beginning treatment as soon as possible.

“We thank our community for their ongoing support in using services appropriately.”