Tuesday, February 06, 2007

A&E wait figures 'being fiddled'

The four-hour A&E target is being "fiddled" by "dubious management tactics", academics say.


City University's Cass Business School said to meet the target the NHS needed to treat patients twice as quickly.
They said this was not achievable after using mathematical modelling and suggested hospitals were manipulating the figures.
But the government said it was "nonsense" to suggest the target was not being met 
Since 2004, 98% of patients in A&E should be seen within four hours. Latest figures show this is being achieved.

Researchers analysed data from 170,000 patients and used "queuing theory", a recognised model to predict people flow used by supermarkets and traffic monitoring systems.

The academics were then able to show how quickly hospitals could treat and discharge people to meet the target.

They found that patients would need to be seen and cleared from A&E wards within an hour.
Before the target kicked in, patients were seen in just under two hours.The researchers said this level of improvement was not achievable, although they did not doubt that waiting times had reduced.

Instead, they suggested hospitals were using tactics to stop the clock.
They said there was a peak of patients being discharged at the four-hour mark, and suggested hospitals may be discharging them and then readmitting them straight away.
The academics also said hospitals were moving patients to clinical decision units, a kind of half-way house between A&E and the rest of the hospital.
The current A&E target is simply not achievable without the employment of dubious management tactics.
The government needs to revisit its targets and stop forcing hospitals into a position where they look for ways to creatively report back, rather than actually reducing waiting times for real people.

I HAVE BEEN TOLD HOW THESE FIGURES ARE FIDDLED, THE REAL WAY TO ACHIEVE
EXCELLENCE IN A&E IS THE HINCHINGBROOKE MODEL, THE BIG TRUSTS SHOULD
SEE HOW THEY DO IT RATHER THAN HAVING PATIENTS WAITING IN AMBULANCES OUTSIDE OR PATIENTS WAITING WITH AMBULANCE STAFF UNTIL THEY ARE "DELIVERED", UNTIL THEY ARE HANDED OVER THE 4 HOUR WAITING TIME DOES NOT BEGIN, THE MAIN ISSUES HERE IS THAT THE WATING TIMES ARE FRAUD AND THE AMBULANCES ARE THEREFORE NOT AVALIABLE FOR EMERGENCY USE - SHAME ON YOU, SOMEONE NEEDS TO HELD TO ACCOUNT OVER THIS............