Royal Berkshire Hospital have warned that its Emergency Department is ‘extremely busy’.

They urged residents to make sure they only attend A&E with emergencies.

Posting to their social media accounts, the hospital reminded patients to be patient with staff “as work to provide the best possible care.”

The news comes as the latest figures reveal tens of thousands of patients were waiting for routine treatment at the Royal Berkshire Trust in July.

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The King's Fund, a leading healthcare think tank, has said the Liz Truss must act urgently to tackle the problems blighting the NHS as it heads into a "terrible" winter.

NHS England figures show 42,921 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust at the end of July – down from 46,604 in June, and 44,725 in July 2021.

Of those, 1,566 had been waiting for longer than a year.

The median waiting time from referral at an NHS Trust to treatment at the Royal Berkshire Trust was 13 weeks at the end of July – down from 14 weeks in June.

Richard Murray, chief executive of the King's Fund, said the NHS is being "shaken to its core".

"The challenges affecting the NHS cannot be solved without addressing the systemic workforce shortages and sustained funding shortfalls in social care.

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"The new PM and Secretary of State have a matter of weeks to decide what emergency short term action to take to provide at least some additional support during what promises to be a terrible winter for patients and staff.

"This could include maximising the campaigns for winter Covid boosters and flu vaccines, tackling the pensions issue driving senior staff out of the NHS, and emergency funding to boost capacity in social care."

Responding to the latest performance figures for England as a whole, Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said the NHS's problems have been "years in the making".

“The new government is absolutely right to prioritise health and social care as a matter of urgency.

"Exactly how to turn this around as we go into winter will not be an easy task, but a relentless focus on the workforce, social care and hospital buildings are essential."

Nationally, 6.8 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of July – a new record.

Commenting on the national trend, Health and Social Care Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Thérèse Coffey said: “We know some of the backlog challenges will increase as people continue to present themselves for treatment.

"We are investing £39 billion to tackle these challenges, ensure the NHS is fully prepared for winter and fix the broken social care system.”