Over two-thirds of people who arrived at a Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust A&E were seen within four hours last month - missing the NHS target of 95 per cent.

NHS England figures show that there were 14,095 visits to A&E at the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust in September and, of them, 9,832 were seen within four hours - accounting for 70 per cent of arrivals.

The NHS standard is for 95 per cent of patients to be seen within four hours. However, the Government announced a two-year plan to stabilise NHS services earlier this year which set a recovery target of 76 per cent of patients being seen within four hours by March 2024.

It means that the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust fell short of the NHS standard and the recovery target. 

Across England, some 72 per cent of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged from A&E within four hours last month, down from 73 per cent in August. The figure hit a record low of 65 per cent in December 2022.

In September, 33,107 arrivals in A&E waited more than 12 hours from a decision to admit to actually being admitted – up 15 per cent from August.

At Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, 665 patients waited longer than four hours, including 206 who were delayed by more than 12 hours.

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Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the health think tank The King's Fund, said A&E departments have had a busy summer and are now facing a "punishing winter".

He added: "A combination of thinking long-term about improving people’s access to out-of-hospital care, making health and social care a more attractive career, and tackling the biggest risk factors affecting people’s health, is what will slowly reverse the decline in NHS performance.

Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said NHS acute care services continued to be under "immense strain" with clinicians expecting the coming months to be as "chaotic and challenging" as last winter.

The overall number of attendances to A&E at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust in September was a rise of 8 per cent on the 13,081 visits recorded during August and 25 per cent more than the 11,288 patients seen in September 2022.

Across England, A&E departments received 2.2 million visits last month – up slightly from August, and an 8 per cent jump from the number of visits seen in September 2022.

NHS England said last month was the busiest September ever for A&E attendance as industrial action and high levels of demand have piled pressure on services.