Waiting times at the accident and emergency department in Noble’s Hospital have dropped, Health Minister Kate Beecroft has revealed.

The average waiting time is down to two hours and 46 minutes.

But the department has yet to match the English standard of 95% of patients dealt with initially within four hours.

Mrs Beecroft was asked a Tynwald question by David Ashford (Douglas North) who wanted to know what the waiting times were at A&E in 2016.

The minister said the operational standard for NHS England - adopted by the Manx Government - was that 95% of A&E patients should be ’admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of their arrival’.

’Aggregate performance at Noble’s against this standard in 2016 is 73.4%,’ she said.

’For the period January to August 2017 this performance has improved to 78.3%. For the same period in 2016, aggregate performance was 71.8%.’

In 2016, the average waiting time to be seen in A&E was three hours and seven minutes, but the figure, so far, for 2017 is 166 minutes.

The DHSC also records the waiting time for patients to be first seen by a doctor.

In 2016, the average time was 70 minutes. For January to August this year, that average has reduced to 46 minutes.

Mrs Beecroft (pictured) added: ’The total number of patients attending A&E in 2016 is 30,366.

’Based on the A&E attendances figures for the period January to August 2017, the full year forecast in 2017 is 30,759. Therefore, whilst overall A&E attendance shows very little growth, associated waiting time performance in 2017 compared to 2016 is showing significant improvement.’

The improvements were ’largely attributable’ to recent consultant appointments and the ’process redesign’ taking place across the A&E department, she said.