Eight patients left on trolleys for over 12 hours

Seven of these patients spent New Year’s Eve waiting over 12 hours on a trolley, according to the data covering 19 to 31 December.

King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust had the highest number of trolley waits in the country with Wye Valley Trust and the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals Foundation Trust following with two each.

A spokesman from King’s said: “In October, we took over responsibility for the running of the Princess Royal University Hospital, including its emergency department – a service that has been facing challenges for a while.

“Since October, we’ve made a number of changes, including increasing staffing levels in the emergency department and putting in place additional capacity. Longer-term, we are implementing many of the pathways we have developed at our Denmark Hill site, that will ultimately make the Princess Royal emergency department service much more sustainable.”

Princess Royal University Hospital, which was part of the now defunct South London Healthcare Trust, underwent a Care Quality Commission inspection under the new regime at the beginning of December. A report is expected to be published in the next few months.