Patients could face LONGER waits in A&E as Theresa May suggests NHS four-hour target could be scrapped
PATIENTS may face longer casualty waits as the Prime Minister and NHS bosses suggest the flagship A&E target is set to be scrapped.
Emergency units are currently expected to treat 95 per cent of patients within four hours.
But Theresa May today admitted the health service has "been slipping against the targets", and said bosses will look at the "right targets for the future".
It comes after Simon Stevens said the A&E target was likely to change earlier today.
The NHS England chief executive said a review was considering introducing “tougher, faster standards” for the most urgent cases, such as sepsis and heart attacks.
But time limits for less serious cases, such as minor cuts or bone breaks, could be relaxed.
That means patients with minor ailments could face longer waits for treatment.
Announcing the new 10-year NHS plan in Liverpool today, Mrs May said: "We are actually seeing the NHS treat more people and delivers services and care.
"We have been slipping against the targets... and we need to see improvements in those efforts.
She added: "We are looking at what are the right sort of targets for the future... it all needs to be based on clinical evidence."
Despite hospitals failing to meet the key A&E target for the past three years, they will only get a smaller share of Theresa May’s £20 billion NHS boost – with GPs and mental health the big winners.
It has led to emergency medics warning they were facing a "near-on impossible task."
Mr Stevens told the Radio 4 Today programme: "On A&E services we think we need a tougher faster set of standards for some major conditions than we have at the moment.
“The problem is it doesn’t distinguish between turning up at A&E with a sprained finger versus turning up with a heart attack.
"So what senior doctors are telling us is that they think the standards should focus particularly on those major conditions - that’s things like sepsis, heart attack and stroke."
The problem is it doesn’t distinguish between turning up at A&E with a sprained finger versus turning up with a heart attack
Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS
He said part of the problem with the four-hour target is that it's not terribly well understood.
Many think it is four hours to start treatment.
But it is actually four hours to have been assessed, have tests done and for the treatment to have been completed, and, if you need to be kept in hospital then for you to be admitted to a hospital bed.
Half a million lives will be saved under the new 10-year plan, announced today by Theresa May and Mr Stevens at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.
Patients will get tests for cancers and world-leading treatments for heart attacks and strokes, the plan states.
Pledging a £20.5bn-a-year boost, the PM said the blueprint would provide “the best possible care for every major condition from cradle to grave”, and “relieve pressure” on the NHS.
NHS England chief Simon Stevens will promise a “gene revolution”.
In a world first, every child with cancer will be gene tested from this year.
MORE ON THE NHS
Thousands more adults with breast, bowel, prostate, lung and ovarian cancer will be offered gene testing from next year. Other measures include a £2.3billion boost for mental health services.
Other announcements include:
- GPs will get a larger slice of cash in a bid to keep patients out of hospital, with an extra £4.5billion annually for community care by 2024.
- Patients will get digital access to their GP via phones later this year.
- Extra funds will make maternity services the safest in the world, preventing thousands of baby deaths.
- Waste will be slashed including administration savings of £700million.