A private firm running NHS services is allegedly discharging patients before they have been treated to avoid breaching guidelines.
An undercover probe into Care UK , Britain’s biggest provider of out-of-hours services, has revealed patients are put at “huge risk”.
Healthcare providers face fines for missing the national four-hour target for all emergency departments to conclude 95% of cases.
But covert footage has suggested doctors are discharging patients when they near the limit. They continue to receive treatment later on, but off the books.
Suzanne Mason, professor of Emergency medicine at the University of Sheffield, said: “By discharging somebody off your system before they’ve left the department, there’s a huge risk something could happen to that patient.”
Full story in The Mirror 21 July 2015