MORE than 136,000 people attended A&E departments at Oxfordshire’s hospital last year, new figures show.

The figure is a 3.5 per cent increase on the year before - higher than the national increase of two per cent.

NHS data released yesterday shows a total of 136,005 patients attended A&E in Oxfordshire in 2017/18, while there were 131,233 recorded visits in 2016/17.

More men attended than women in 2017/18 (68,910 compared to 67, 090), with a small number where gender was not recorded.

More visitors aged in their 20s attended A&E than any other group with 21,430 patients aged between 20 to 29, while the busiest time for A&E staff proved to be between 7pm and 8pm.

Eighty per cent spent four hours or less in A&E - the NHS target is 95 per cent.

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The figures come after one of the worst winters on record for the NHS when staffing pressures, cold weather, and flu outbreaks caused the cancellation of thousands of operations across the county, including hundreds here in Oxfordshire.

Nationally a total of 23.8 million attendances were recorded in England during 2017/18. That is an increase of two per cent compared to 2016/17 and 22 per cent since 2008/09, according to official figures.

Eighty nine per cent of patients spent four hours or less in A&E in 2016/17.

The figures show that the average growth per year over the period since 2008/09 is two per cent, compared to England's average population growth of one per cent per year over a similar period.