More than 1,000 patients waited longer than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital in Lincolnshire's accident and emergency departments in December as attendance increased by nearly 10%.

According to the latest NHS attendance statistics United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust saw 18,986 people attend A&E in December – an average of 612 people a day.

Of those, 11,035 (58%) were seen in less than four hours and 7,951 (42%) were admitted after four hours.

However, 1,034 (5.4%) patients were waiting more than 12 hours from decision to admit.

In November these figures were 10,779 (61%), 6,894 (39%) and 560 (3.1%) respectively.

This was a 7.4% increase (17,673) compared to the previous month over all.

Figures are not yet available for January. ULHT Chief Executive, Andrew Morgan, said: "As a trust, we continue to see significant demand on our urgent and emergency care services.

"We are often seeing and admitting patients who have more complex needs.

"We also need to continue to focus on discharging those patients who have finished their episode of acute hospital care.

"If we do not get the flow right in the hospital, this can result in long waits for treatment in A&E and long waits for those who need to be admitted to a bed from A&E.

"We are making progress in all of these areas but there is still more work to do.''

The trust had a tough time during the festive period, being forced to declare critical incidents at least three times in three weeks due to the significant pressure.

The declarations allow the trust to pull resources and staff from elsewhere to support departments which are straining under the pressure.

It would also appear staff continue to feel the weight of the challenge.

Former Lincoln Labour MP Karen Lee, who works as an NHS nurse recently tweeted: "Yesterday I worked one of the heaviest 13 hour shifts I can remember. In 20 years. The crisis in our NHS has to be addressed."

Mr Morgan called on patients to do everything they can to ensure they are staying well this winter and to help themselves by visiting NHS 111 online, which can signpost them to the relevant healthcare service. Patients can also access care from their local pharmacy, GP or an Urgent Treatment Centre.