Call for rethink on four-hour target

  Doctors’ leaders have said it might be time to review the four-hour target to see patients in Welsh emergency medicine departments. According to the latest performance statistics, 77.2 per cent of patients were seen or discharged from Welsh emergency medicine departments within four hours. The target is 95 per cent. The figures show that this year saw the busiest February for emergency medicine departments since records began in 2006, with 2,689 patients seen. Phil Banfield (pictured), chair of the BMA Welsh council, said: ‘BMA Cymru Wales has long advocated the use of targets that are clinically meaningful and it is possibly time to review the four-hour emergency department wait so that those patients with the greatest clinical need are seen as a priority. ‘It is essential that patients not requiring the emergency department familiarise themselves with alternative out-of-hours or other advice services, in line with the prudent healthcare agenda.’
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news