A&E should cope this winter

Posted 09/09/2013

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has given the assurance that Accident & Emergency (A&E) units in England should be able to meet their four hour waiting time targets this winter.

He has set out a package of short and long term measures to tackle the growing pressures in the system, including an extra £500m over the next two winters. The money will be shared by 53 hospital trusts and is dependent on 75% of their staff being vaccinated against flu.

Meanwhile, he said work on longer term fixes for integrating social care with the NHS and for redesigning the whole urgent and emergency care system functions would continue.

Sophie Bales, a medical injury solicitor at Ashtons Legal, comments: “Last winter many hospitals failed to meet the A&E four hour waiting time target due to pressures on resources. It is crucial that those in urgent need are seen as soon as possible and long waits at A&E can have devastating consequences. Therefore, it is positive that short term measures have been put in place to prevent long waits this winter. We will have to wait to see whether these have the desired effect.In the long term, the urgent and emergency care system will need drastic redesign and reform to ensure an appropriate distribution of resources so that it is best placed to manage the pressures on the system”.