Patients attending A&E at Noble’s on Boxing Day had to wait on average more than four hours.

The figure was released following a Freedom of Information request to the Department of Health and Social Care.

It revealed that the average waiting time in the Emergency Department on December 26 was 252 minutes.

The DHSC noted that the average waiting time for the period covering December 20 to January 2 was 205 minutes - and therefore the waiting time on Boxing Day was 47 minutes or 27% longer than the average for the period.

There was an average number of 76 patients a day attending A&E over the festive period.

On Christmas Day itself, the number of patients attending the Emergency Department of Noble’s totalled 50.

But on Boxing Day, this number increased to 89 - 78% more than the previous day and 13 more than the average for the festive period.

The Emergency Department has a target of having 95% of patients admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival in A&E.

This does not include planned follow-up attendances.

This matches the target in England.

But as at October last year, its performance was just 77%, which was 1% worse than the previous quarter.

As part of its five year strategy plan, from 2016 to 2021, the DHSC committed to review UK waiting time targets, set appropriate Manx targets, and then monitor and publish performance data.