Reducing four-hour target a welcome move, RCN says

Published: 21 June 2010

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) today (21 June) welcomed the move to reduce the four-hour accident and emergency waiting time target to 95 per cent, contained in the revised NHS Operating Framework for the NHS in England 2010/11. RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary Dr Peter Carter said the RCN has been explicitly calling for greater flexibility around the target for a long time. He commented:

 On the four-hour A&E target:

“The four-hour A&E target has undoubtedly helped to improve patient care by reducing waiting times for treatment. However, nurses have been telling us that they were put under tremendous pressure – in some cases to the detriment of patient care – to meet the 98 per cent target. We are therefore pleased that the government has listened to our explicit calls to make patient care safer by increasing flexibility around the treatment of A&E patients.

 “Today’s document also suggests that the target may be removed next year - while it is absolutely right to focus on improving clinical outcomes, what matters is getting the balance right between process targets – those which help patients get care quickly – and outcome targets. The reality is that for high quality care we need a mixture of both.”

 On the removal of performance management of the 18-week waiting time target:

“Patients value short waiting times and the 18-week waiting time to treatment target is well understood as a way of getting access to care quickly. We believe the ambition should now be to drive it down even further. While Trusts will no longer be ‘performance managed’ there must be transparency around whether they are meeting the 18-week target. Along with a robust monitoring procedure we also need to be absolutely clear what would happen if a Trust failed to meet the target.”

Dr Carter added:

“Today’s operating framework revision shows that the government intends to change the way the NHS is run. It is vital that the government listens to nurses’ views on how to improve care. We know for example that savings on management costs can be made in some areas while in others they might just result in nurses taking on more administration work at the expense of providing one-to-one care.”

 Ends

 Notes for Editors

 For further information, interviews or illustrations please contact the RCN Media Office on 0207 647 3633, press.office@rcn.org.uk or visit http://www.rcn.org.uk/newsevents/media

 The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the voice of nursing across the UK and is the largest professional union of nursing staff in the world. The RCN promotes the interest of nurses and patients on a wide range of issues and helps shape healthcare policy by working closely with the UK Government and other national and international institutions, trade unions, professional bodies and voluntary organisations.