Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Doctors in casualty units are admitting patients into hospitals unnecessarily for fear of breaching government waiting-time targets, using up much-needed bed space and slowing down admissions procedures, a report suggests.
In a comprehensive analysis of the ever-increasing pressure on England?s accident and emergency (A&E) wards and its impact on the wider NHS, the Government?s spending watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO), identified the Department of Health?s key four-hour waiting-time target as ?one of the main reasons for the increase in short-stay emergency admissions?.
The target, introduced by Labour in 2003-04, requires 95 per cent of patients attending casualty units to be seen, treated and either admitted or discharged in less than four hours. Although the NAO found the target had reduced waiting times, it also said nearly a quarter of all admissions from A&E took place in the 10 minutes before the four-hour limit was breached.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...ets-make-the-ae-crisis-far-worse-8913933.html
In a comprehensive analysis of the ever-increasing pressure on England?s accident and emergency (A&E) wards and its impact on the wider NHS, the Government?s spending watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO), identified the Department of Health?s key four-hour waiting-time target as ?one of the main reasons for the increase in short-stay emergency admissions?.
The target, introduced by Labour in 2003-04, requires 95 per cent of patients attending casualty units to be seen, treated and either admitted or discharged in less than four hours. Although the NAO found the target had reduced waiting times, it also said nearly a quarter of all admissions from A&E took place in the 10 minutes before the four-hour limit was breached.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...ets-make-the-ae-crisis-far-worse-8913933.html