Full story in Pulse, 5 December 2017
Only 82.45% of A&E departments are currently meeting the target of seeing patients within four hours of attending, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has reported.
The latest figures reveal that in the fourth week of November performance against the four hour target is well under NHS England’s 95% standard, and has dropped considerably from 85.23% the previous week.
The underlying picture shows 15 increases and 38 decreases across the whole project group of 50 UK NHS Trust sites.
These figures come as NHS England has been predicting a severe winter for the health service, in part due to a heavy flu season in Australia, while all trusts have been given funding to include a GP ‘streaming service’ to alleviate pressure on A&E.