Labour

For eighth week running hospitals failing to meet the Government's own lowered A&E target - Burnham

Andy Burnham MP, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, speaking after the release of new A&E waiting times figures this afternoon, said:

"On a day of bad news for David Cameron’s Health Bill, we have yet more evidence of an NHS in increasing distress and of a Government that has lost its grip.

"For the eighth week running, hospitals are failing to meet the Government's own lowered A&E target. The Prime Minister relaxed Labour's standards on A&E waiting times and now more and more people are facing longer waits. Patients are beginning to pay the price for David Cameron's mismanagement of the NHS.

"David Cameron needs to focus on what matters to people rather than his ideological re-organisation. He should swallow his political pride, drop his Health Bill and start putting patients first."

For more information:

1. Official figures issued today show that major A&E units have missed the four-hour maximum waiting time target for the last eight weeks. The figures also show that the NHS missed the national target for all types of A&E:

Source: http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/@ps/@sta/@perf/documents/digitalasset/dh_132816.xls

2. The Department of Health defines a Type 1 A&E department as follows:

Type 1 A&E department = A consultant led 24 hour  service with full resuscitation facilities and designated accommodation for the reception of accident and emergency patients
http://www.performance.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity/nhsweb/qmaefg.htm

3. Shortly after taking office, Andrew Lansley downgraded the standard that the NHS should see 98% of A&E patients within four hours to 95%. Major A&E units are now failing to meet even this relaxed target.

The revised Operating Framework also sets out for the first time changes to the use of targets in the NHS. These include:
removal of targets around access to primary care;
removal of top-down performance management of the 18 weeks referral to treatment target; and
reduction of the 4 hour A&E target threshold from 98 per cent to 95 per cent.

Department of Health press release, 21 June 2010, http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=413965&SubjectId=2