MORE than 1,000 extra people visited A&E in Basildon last month compared to 2017 due to an “unprecedented summer surge” caused by the heatwave.

Figures from NHS England show that 13,447 people attended Basildon Hospital’s emergency departments in July - 1,340 more than the same month last year.

Southend’s A&E departments also saw a year-on-year rise, with 9,087 patients this July compared to 8,683 the previous year.

Both hospitals have put the increases down to the hot temperatures leading to people suffering from dehydration, and respiratory problems being exacerbated by the dry weather.

Caroline Howard, emergency department clinical director at Southend Hospital, said: “We have noticed a rise in the number of emergency attendances during the recent record temperatures.

“We have seen more elderly patients who have fallen or collapsed due to the weather conditions.

“Also the number of people attending with an acute kidney injury, usually secondary to dehydration, while respiratory symptoms have increased.

“This is most likely due to unusually high season pollen counts.”

She added: “Given that it is the school holidays and warmer than average, of course we have also seen more injuries in all age groups.”

A spokesman from Basildon Hospital said that despite the increase in people, less people were having to wait longer than four hours.

They added: “We have had high attendances to our A&E department in June and July this year, and throughout this period, 96 per cent or more of patients attending the emergency department at Basildon Hospital have been admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

“Last month, 13,477 people attended our A&E department, an increase of 1,340 on the same month in 2017.

“At the same time, significantly fewer people are waiting more than four hours to be admitted, transferred or discharged, meaning that more patients are having a better, safer experience in our hospital.

“Excellent work by our staff and our partners in community and social care has reduced the number of patients remaining in hospital when they do not need acute care, freeing up beds for people who do need inpatient hospital care, and reducing the time they have to wait in our A&E department.

“We have two critical care units, one in the main hospital and one in the Essex Cardiothoracic Centre. Both units provide intensive care (level 3) beds and high dependency (level 2) beds.

“The numbers of each type of bed constantly varies, according to the needs of our patients.

“We recognise that our activity level is high and we are working to address this.

“The challenges we face in our critical care unit are not due to lack of funding, but recruiting specialist staff is an issue, as many NHS trusts are experiencing.

“We have made great efforts to address this and attract new staff and between September and December this year, 15 new nurses will start work in our critical care unit.

“In addition, we are working with our clinical commissioning partners to increase our CCU bed capacity.”

An NHS England spokesman said: “As temperatures soared, the NHS saw an unprecedented summer surge last month with a record 2.2 million patients attending A&E.

“Thanks to the hard work of staff, nine in 10 people were seen, treated and admitted or discharged within four hours.”