TWO-THIRDS of people who arrived at Barnsley Hospital’s accident and emergency last month were seen within the four-hour target.

As part of a recovery plan, the health service extended its objective for 78 per cent of patients to be admitted, discharged or transferred within this time frame by next March.

Recent NHS England figures show there were 8,914 visits to A and E in Barnsley in April and of them, 5,978 were seen within four hours - accounting for 67 per cent of arrivals.

This means the trust fell below the recovery target and the original standard, although progress is being made ahead of next March’s deadline.

A total of 444 patients waited longer than four hours, including five who were delayed by more than 12 hours.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said: “The scale of demand that our frontline NHS teams are managing is enormous - these figures show that each month, they are having to not only deal with a historic backlog, but they are also working to keep up with the hundreds of thousands of new patients that need our care.

“It is a good thing that more people are coming forward for care - and I would urge anyone who has health concerns to come forward and get checked out as soon as they can.

“While huge pressure on services remain, these figures show that the reform plan is bearing fruit for patients across the country with the NHS already reforming to work in new ways to deliver for patients.”

The hospital’s already invested in its workforce within the emergency department, recruiting their own GP workforce to deliver the ‘GP Streaming’ service for primary care-type presentations that ‘walk in’.

Investment has also gone into the paediatric service, expanding the service to operate between 7am and midnight now, rather than a 12-hour service.

A spokesperson from Barnsley Hospital said attendances at the hospital in 2025 remained higher than pre-pandemic levels.

“It takes a whole hospital approach to improve waiting times in A and E.

“Teams throughout the trust, often working hand-in-hand with partner organisations in the community, have been focusing on processes within their specialism which have a direct impact on the flow of patients into, and out of, the hospital.

“We are hugely grateful to the people who have worked hard to make this change possible.

“This latest programme of work is a ‘system-wide’ approach across Barnsley health and care partners.

“It is recognised that a whole system response is the solution to easing pressures at A and E, and obtaining the best health and care outcomes.

“The ambition of this programme of work supports our direction towards achieving national performance standards in urgent and emergency care.

“We welcome and recognise the value of working with health and care partners across the system to improve the health of the Barnsley population.”