A&E admissions were down by more than 1,000 last month as Great Western Hospital geared up for the fight of its life, new figures show. 

The data, published by the NHS, revealed that 5,222 attended the Swindon emergency department in February compared with 6,285 in the same month last year as people stayed away. 

Roughly the same number of people were admitted to the wards; around 2,000. 

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However, people were still facing lengthy waits, with 76.9 per cent of patients admitted to hospital or treated within four hours of getting to A&E. 

Hospital acting chief executive Kevin McNamara said the coronavirus crisis had helped focus minds across the NHS and social care system. 

As well as cutting A&E figures, as people opted to stay at home rather than head to hospital with minor injuries, bed-blocking delays have spiralled downwards with the authorities desperate to clear hospital beds in anticipation of more and more coronavirus patients requiring treatment in the coming weeks.

 Mr McNamara said: “We’ve seen a big drop in the number of patients stranded in the hospital.

 “Part of that is that absolute singular focus in the NHS and social care system to get patients who don’t need to be in hospital out of hospital. 

“There’s still further to go, because we have to get those stranded patients down to an absolute minimum to make sure we don’t have any medically fit patients waiting in the hospital.” 

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They had almost halved the number of medically-fit patients waiting more than 14 days to be discharged from hospital, he said.

‘Super-stranded’ patients, those waiting more than three weeks, were down 41 per cent. 

Mr McNamara said the focus on tackling the coronavirus outbreak had seen barriers to getting patients out of hospital.

It had also hastened changes already being called for by NHS chiefs, like some outpatient appointments being held virtually. 

“One of my favourite sayings is don’t waste a crisis. There are things that come up in a crisis that are things we can cling on to,” he said. 

Nationally, most hospitals reported falling A&E waits last month. The four-hour wait target was still being missed.

John Appleby of the Nuffield Trust said: “As the coronavirus outbreak intensifies we should be under no illusions about the additional strain this could put on an already pressured NHS.