Less than three-quarters of A&E arrivals at Milton Keynes Hospital seen within 4 hours – as Prime Minister announces NHS England to be scrapped

The news comes as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in Hull NHS England, the governing body of the NHS, will be scrapped to "cut bureaucracy", avoid duplication, and bring the management of the health service "back into democratic control".

The NHS standard is for 95% of patients to be seen within four hours. However, as part of a recovery plan, the health service aims for 78% of patients to be seen within this time frame by March 2025.

Recent NHS England figures show there were 12,878 visits to A&E at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in February. Of them, 9,463 were seen within four hours – accounting for 73% of arrivals.

This means the trust fell below the recovery target and the original standard.

Similarly, 73.4% of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, very slightly higher than in January, when 73% were.

Figures also show 47,623 emergency admissions waited more than 12 hours in A&E departments from a decision to admit to actually being admitted, down from 61,529 the month before.

The number waiting at least four hours from a decision to admit to admission fell, standing at 131,237 in February – down from 159,582 in January.

At Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, 735 patients waited longer than four hours.

The figures were released as Sir Keir Starmer announced NHS England will be abolished.

The Prime Minister said decisions about billions of pounds of taxpayer money should not be taken by an "arms-length" body, as he promised sweeping reforms which the Government says will deliver better care for patients.

Sir Keir said the previous Tory government had been mistaken to make NHS England more independent as he warned the state was "weaker than ever".

"We are duplicating things...If we strip that out, which is what we are doing today, that then allows us to free up that money to put it where it needs to be, which is the front line," he said.

Despite the progress nationally, Nuffield Trust chief executive Thea Stein said the A&E wait time figures were "previously unthinkable".

"Continued salami slicing and reducing so-called back office staff is unlikely to be the answer to what is now a fundamental mismatch between the supply of healthcare, demand for it, and the state of NHS resources – from buildings to the morale of the staff," she added.

"But the alternatives – finding more money or facing up to tough conversations with the public about what the NHS should stop doing – are politically highly problematic."

Around 2.1 million people attended A&E departments across England last month.

The overall number of attendances to A&E at MK University Hospital in February was a drop of 4% on the 13,393 visits recorded during January, and 6% lower than the 13,721 patients seen in February 2024.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, praised the "hard work of staff" in the face of "huge pressure this winter".

He added: "We know there is much further to go to reduce waits and delays across all NHS services, but today’s figures are encouraging.”