HEALTH bosses have been forced to defend A&E services after admitting they were struggling to cope with growing pressures.

New figures released by NHS England show Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust has not met its quarterly target to see 95 per cent of major A&E unit patients in under four hours 13 times since 2011 – driving campaigners to refresh calls to return an A&E to High Wycombe, more than 10 years after it was closed down.

This comes as Bucks County Council urge people to stay away from A&E departments unless “absolutely necessary”.

The latest set of statistics from the NHS show that in November 2016, only 80.2 per cent of patients were admitted into the major A&E department at Stoke Mandeville in less than four hours, seeing the county fall short of the national average which was 82.7 per cent.

The numbers have declined since November 2010 when Bucks admitted 97.8 per cent of patients into the major A&E department under four hours, beating the national average of 95.9 per cent.

Earlier this week, health secretary Jeremy Hunt announced plans to ditch the four hour target, with the Red Cross warning that the NHS faces a “humanitarian crisis”.

Health campaigner Linda Derrick said: “When someone is seriously injured or ill, two things are critical – first that they get good treatment and second that they get treated quickly.

“Why haven’t Bucks MPs spoken out about the poor care being given to emergency patients in Bucks.

“What does it take for one of our MPs to tell Theresa May or Jeremy Hunt that it is their responsibility and the NHS need more resources – and now.”

Neil Macdonald, from Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust said increased admissions into A&E are to blame for climbing waiting times, but insisted more measures have been put in place to increase patient flow.

He said: “There are a number of factors which contribute to an A&E department’s ability to meet the 95 per cent target.

“These include challenges with being able to discharge patients safely and release beds for people who need admitting to hospital, as well as those people who use A&E as a first choice for treatment, rather than make use of other more appropriate options available.

“A&E is a pinch point for the whole system, and it therefore requires a whole system solution. Alongside the improvements we have made to our emergency care services, we are working with our local GPs, pharmacists and social care partners to support people to keep well and out hospital; all of which ultimately eases pressure on A&E."

MP for High Wycombe, Steve Baker, is adamant returning A&E to Wycombe Hospital is not the best solution for the town, and insisted an urgent care centre is the best way forward.

He said: “Unfortunately the NHS must become far better at communicating with the public about what services are where and where they should go when they need help.

“I am absolutely convinced that what we need is an urgent care centre.

“That takes the services we currently have, add extra diagnostics, more GPs in there, we should have pharmacy in there, we should have a whole range of services that are supplementary that should deal with the overwhelming majority of cases in High Wycombe and that is what we need.”