Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London

Accident and Emergency

Waiting times in Accident and Emergency services

Our emergency department (A&E) at St Thomas’ Hospital is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to treat patients with the most serious or life-threatening injuries and conditions. Patients with the most serious problems will be seen first. 

What's the standard?

It is expected that at least 95% of patients attending A&E will wait less than four hours to be diagnosed, treated, discharged or admitted to hospital.

How are we doing?

Our recent performance:

• June 2019 – 83.2% of patients coming to our A&E department waited less than four hours
• May – 85.4%
• April – 84.3%.

We are working hard to meet the standard although this has been proving difficult due to the increasing number of patients attending both A&E and the urgent treatment centre every day.

Four hours is the maximum time you should have to wait and most patients will be seen more quickly.

Our staff will always try to keep you informed of how long your wait is likely to be. However, waiting times will vary depending on how many seriously ill patients need treatment.