Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has welcomed the recent improvement in Trusts’ performance on emergency care waiting times in the face of very challenging circumstances.

The Minister was speaking as validated figures for April were published which showed that the percentage of patients who were either treated or discharged or admitted within four hours of their arrival in an A&E department had risen to 83%. This compares to 80% in March and 82% in February.

In addition, 633 patients had waited longer than 12 hours at A&E Departments. This compares with 1,239 patients in March 2010 and 538 in February 2010.

This improvement in performance has been achieved against the background of a further increase in the number of people attending A&E departments, with over 1,000 additional attendances in April compared to March, and more than 10,000 additional attendances when compared with February.

In all there were 62,382 attendances at A&E Departments during the month of April, 61,038 in March 2010 and 51,132 in February 2010. This represents an increase in numbers of 22% between February and April.

Furthermore the attendances for April represent the highest volume of A&E attendances since May 2008.

The Minister stressed the importance of people making proper use of A&E services. He said: “People should remember that A&E services are for emergency situations. Cuts, bruises and sprains are generally regarded as minor injuries and are not normally considered to be emergencies.

“When people are considering going to A&E with a concern about things such as ongoing health problems or a minor injury they should in the first instance try to contact their GP, out of hours service or their local minor injuries unit.

“Minor injuries services are now widely available across Northern Ireland with units at the Tyrone County, Mid Ulster, Whiteabbey, South Tyrone, Armagh, Ards and Bangor hospitals – these are able to deal with the vast majority of conditions seen in A&E departments.”

The Minister went on to say: “The pressures facing staff in A&E departments are considerable and growing, and I would like to pay tribute to them for all their hard work in coping under such difficult circumstances and with very limited resources.”