UK
Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour
Better news this week for waiting times in A&E
units in England as the BBC report that they have improved to their best level
since November – although the target is still being missed, figures show.
A
total of 92.4% of patients were seen in four hours in the seven days up until
Sunday. The target is 95% and has been missed on a weekly basis since the start
of October. But until this latest week performance had dropped to its lowest
levels since 2010. That record low is now over.
In
the first week of January, the BBC reported that performance was lower than 87%
- the worst it has been since weekly records began in 2010.
During
the latest week, the NHS seems to have been helped because the number of
attendances has fallen.
It
has been suggested that some of the information about and general pleas for
people to visit hospitals only in emergencies, after weeks of bad headlines,
has had an effect.
But
Dame Barbara Hakin, of NHS England, said that while demands had
"eased" the NHS was still facing "huge pressures on its
frontline services".
She
added: "For the second successive week there has been an improvement in
A&E performance. It is encouraging. But I want to pay tribute to out staff
for the excellent job they are doing in continuing to provide an incredibly
robust response."
Nonetheless,
only 29 of the 140 major hospital trusts - the overall figures include walk-in
centres and minor injury units actually met the target.
There
was also a rise in delayed discharges - this is where a hospital is unable to
release a patient despite their treatment being completed because a lack of
support available in the community.
The
problem has been highlighted as a key reason for hospitals struggling in the
New Year as the delays mean the flow of patients through the hospital system
slows.
Other
parts of the UK are also struggling. The target is being missed in Scotland,
Northern Ireland and Wales - with the latter seeing the worst waits since the
current way of measuring it began in 2009.
Amanda
Thomas
UK
Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour
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