The busiest and quietest times of the week for accident and emergency services at the Salisbury Trust over the last year have been revealed.

It comes as A&Es across England are at breaking point, with attendance reaching pre-pandemic levels in November and a record proportion of patients facing waits of more than four hours.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced an additional £3.3 billion in NHS funding to deal with increased demand and soaring inflation, but health think tank the Nuffield Trust said it is too late "to have a meaningful impact this year".

NHS Digital figures show that the worst hour of the week to visit A&E at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust was between 2am and 3am on Wednesdays in the year to March.

Patients waited an average of five hours and 44 minutes to be either admitted to an inpatient ward, transferred elsewhere or discharged from hospital.

Meanwhile, the shortest waits were between 8am and 9am on Wednesdays, when patients waited an average of two hours and 49 minutes.

Of the seven days of the week, Wednesday was the worst day overall to visit A&E at the Salisbury Trust, with patients waiting an average of four hours and one minute, while Saturday was the best, when the average wait time dropped to three hours and 39 minutes.

Monday saw the highest average number of patients attending across the year, while Friday saw the lowest.

A spokesperson for the hospital said: "We are proud to deliver a 24-hour, seven days a week emergency service to our local community.  This past year has seen the hospital under intense pressure and at times some patients have had to wait longer than we would have liked. 

"We are sorry for the delays and are incredibly grateful to the community for their patience and understanding as we will always prioritise those with the greatest need.

"A&E is for serious injury and life-threatening conditions. Alternative care can be found by contacting NHS 111.”

The figures come as the NHS deals with increasing pressures during the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Separate NHS England figures show more than 30 per cent of patients waited more than four hours to be seen at A&Es across England in November – a new record for the third month in succession.

The Nuffield Trust said a significant factor is the growing number of patients taking up hospital beds as they wait to be discharged because support from health and care social services outside of hospital is not ready.