Northampton General Hospital denies late rush to hit A&E target
TREATMENT for more than 8,000 A&E patients was pushed through just before they would have breached the waiting time target at Northampton General Hospital, figures show.
The yearly NHS figures for 2011 show about 95 per cent of emergency patients were dealt with within the four-hour time period set by the Department of Health.
But they also reveal that, although a total of 4,088 patients were dealt with – defined as either admitted to hospital or discharged – with 20 minutes before the deadline, the number dealt with in the 10-minute period before leapt to more than double that amount, 8,375.
In the 10-minute period after the Government target, the number of patients dealt with fell again to 3,396.
Moya McVicar, of the patient watchdog Northamptonshire LINk said: “It could well be one of those curious coincidences or they may have someone behind a desk saying you need to deal with this patient now.
“I do know that at Kettering General they have breached their A&E treatment time target quite often and they get into a lot of trouble from the Department of Health. It is certainly something hospitals a keen to avoid if they can.”
The pattern of pre-breach spikes in patient numbers is one repeated in the annual NHS statistics across the country.
Opponents of A&E target times have argued there is a risk that the time limits could force hospitals to deal with a patients more hurriedly to avoid censure, rather than doing what is in the best interests of the patient.
They argue that admitting a patient unnecessarily to meet a target makes the hospital busier than it needs to be.
But Deborah Alderson, NGH’s deputy director of operations said that was not the case at NGH.
She said: “The reason more admissions are taking place later in the four-hour target time is essentially due to the increased number of admissions and the severity of acutely unwell patients.
“Attendances to A&E increased by 2.5 per cent between 2009/2010 and 2010/2011, and the number of admissions for the same period increased by 3.1 per cent despite the close working relationship between primary and secondary care and the county council.”
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TallConnect.Com Tall Singles Club
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 12:29 PMPending Moderation
SteveWonder
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 11:43 AMDelays are not caused by uneven attendance rate or sudden rush of severe cases, it is due to 3 wards having been closed
SteveRiches
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 10:48 AMlady muck is spot on - given that all patients will be treated eventually, the "holding" pattern of 4 hours just adds a rolling layer of inefficiency and leads to extreme customer dissatisfaction. It really can't be beyond the wit of (sensible) man to cut out this useless plug of time with a completely new way of dealing with it. I understand that a sudden unexpected rush due to some unforeseen event will have to mean calling in extra resources but that is hardly a daily happening. Most days at certain times under the current system the queues are predictable, and thus, able to be eradicated with good planning.
lady muck
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 08:20 AMAlthough a target of 4 hours may be difficult to attain, it is still unsatisfactory. Since all patients will be treated eventually, any delays should normally only be caused by an uneven attendance rate or sudden rush of severe cases. National treatment target guidelines must be moved forward, a reasonable target for non-critical treatment would be within 1 hour of attendance. ITo test the hypothesis that NGH is rushing patients through within the last few minutes of the 4 hour deadline, one could compare data with other hospitals....although this 'test' would fail if they were all fiddling the statistics !
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