Hospital staff hit A&E target (From Worcester News)

Hospital staff hit A&E target

9:50pm Friday 7th September 2012 in News

HARD work has paid off after ‘proud’ hospital staff hit a tough emergency waiting time target for the second month in a row.

The national target is for at least 95 per cent of patients to be seen, treated, discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours of coming to an accident and emergency department.

Worcestershire hospitals had been struggling to hit the target for more than a year but finally look to be back on form.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust achieved 96.14 per cent at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester and at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch in August. The trust also hit the target in July.

Hospital staff have managed to achieve the target despite rising pressure on services with emergency admissions up four per cent on the previous year.

The trust has doubled the number of emergency nurse practitioners to offer more support, and extra training for nurses has meant that there are more staff available to carry out x-ray requests and blood test orders.

Clare Bush, emergency department manager at Worcester-shire Royal Hospital, said: “It’s a great feeling to meet this target.

"It’s a measure of our success and lets us know we’re going in the right direction with the changes we’ve made over the last year.

"At the same time we’ve worked hard to maintain care quality and put patients at the centre of everything we’re doing.

“I’d like to say a big thank you to the emergency department team for their focus and team work, we’re really proud of what we’ve been able to achieve.”

The ability to hit the target also reduces financial pressure on the trust.

Failing the target in the past has resulted in repeated fines from NHS paymasters of £22,000 a month and the trust has paid out £66,000 in penalties so far this year.