Fewer patients visited A&E at the trust in charge of The Royal Oldham Hospital last month – but attendances were higher than during the first national lockdown last year, figures reveal.

NHS England figures show 18,507 patients visited A&E at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in April.

That was a drop of 28 per cent on the 25,788 visits recorded during March, but 24 per cent more than the 14,931 patients seen in April the previous year.

The figures show attendances were below the levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic – in April 2019, there were 33,902 visits to A&E at Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust.

The majority of attendances last month were via major A&E departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care – while 22 per cent were via minor injury units.

Across England, A&E departments received 1.9 million visits last month.

That was an increase of 11 per cent compared to March, and more than double the 916,600 seen during April 2020 – a reflection of lower-than-usual numbers for that month as more people avoided hospitals during the early days of the pandemic.

Further figures for last month show 78 per cent of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95 per cent.

There were also 805 patients who waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit. Of those, 21 were delayed by more than 12 hours. Separate data reveals in March the median time to treatment was 67 minutes and around four per cent of patients left before being treated.