Published 19 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4931
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4931

News

Admissions from emergency departments rise as four hour target approaches

Helen Mooney

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The number of patients leaving emergency departments each minute rises with the approach of the government’s four hour maximum waiting time target, research has shown. The rise is especially marked in the 10 minutes before the deadline expires, with 6% of all patients attending emergency departments in England being seen and treated in this time.

The research, published by the NHS Information Centre on 18 November, also shows that the percentage of patients leaving emergency departments who are admitted to hospital rises markedly in the last 10 minutes before the four hour cut-off, with 66% transferred to inpatient wards compared with 21% overall.

The analysis is based on 11.5 million attendances at emergency departments in England, including minor injuries units and walk-in centres, between April 2007 to March 2008.

It shows that overall three quarters of patients seen in emergency departments in England were treated or admitted to hospital within . . . [Full text of this article]


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