THOUSANDS of patients were forced to wait more than four hours at A&E departments in Bournemouth and Poole last year.

Data from NHS England shows that neither the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals nor Poole Hospital trusts met the the NHS national standard for A&E waiting times – 95 per cent of people discharged, transferred or admitted to a ward within four hours.

At Bournemouth the figure was 91 per cent, with 6,901 patients forced to wait more than four hours. At Poole only 88 per cent of patients – the average for England – were dealt with within the target time, meaning 7,676 waited more than four hours.

Dr Chris Moulton, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said pressure on A&E had "spiralled out of control".

"If you keep stretching an elastic band, eventually it will snap," he said.

"You don't ask 'why did the elastic band snap' – it snapped because you stretched it."

He said A&E departments were struggling to cope with the demands of a growing and ageing population, with a lack of social care beds in the community keeping elderly patients waiting in A&E.

He said the more "badly stretched and understaffed" departments were, the more difficult it was to recruit junior doctors, creating a "vicious circle" of staff shortages.

Dr Moulton said he supports the 95 per cent target, a "good pressure" on emergency departments, but the Government should provide more acute hospital beds, increased capacity in social care, and the staff and facilities to keep those beds open.

"Nobody wants to keep patients waiting," he said. "That's anathema to any emergency doctor.

"It's not a magic formula. It's a blindingly obvious solution."

The 2017-18 NHS report shows Bournemouth's A&E department saw the equivalent of 214 people a day last year.

Around 77,900 people went to A&E, up from 75,700 the previous year.

Poole Hospital's A&E, which is due to be closed under the NHS Dorset Clinical Services Review, saw the equivalent of 183 people a day last year.

Around 66,700 people went to A&E, compared to 66,800 the previous year.

Dorset County Hospital met the national standard with 95 per cent of patients seen within the target time.

The trust saw 44,600 people at A&E last year, up from 43,900 the previous year.

Health charity the King's Fund's senior analyst Deborah Ward said: "Staff shortages are particularly concerning, and many departments have a lack of physical space. Some see twice as many patients as they were built for.

"However, it isn’t relentlessly bad news. A&E waiting times, whilst longer than we would like, are about average when compared to similar countries, and patient satisfaction is holding up."

An NHS spokesman said: "Minor injuries have fuelled a significant rise in A&E visits over the last decade. Yet against this backdrop, and with pressures increased by the hottest summer on record, hard-working NHS staff saw, treated and discharged or admitted 50,000 more patients within four hours last month than August last year."