Patients across England have faced record A&E delays as NHS performance against emergency targets slumps to a new low, new data shows.
The number of patients seen within four hours in A&E dropped to 68.9 percent in November, the lowest since records began.
Meanwhile, the number of people waiting for NHS care hit a new high of 7.2 million in October, up from 7.1 million the previous month.
The figures come as NHS England sent a warning to healthcare leaders over the increased demand driven by Strep A concerns on Thursday.
As ambulance staff prepares to strike later this month the latest NHS data shows in November ambulances in England outside London took an average of 48 minutes and eight seconds to respond to emergency calls such as burns, epilepsy and strokes.
This is down from an average of one hour, one minute and 19 seconds in October, but still well above the target of 18 minutes.
Response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labour, non-severe burns and diabetes, averaged two hours, 43 minutes and five seconds, down from three hours, 34 minutes and 34 seconds.
More to come…
