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A&E crisis part of bigger problem

A&E targets continue to be missed by some margin
A&E targets continue to be missed by some margin A&E targets continue to be missed by some margin

FAILURE to meet four-hour A&E waiting time targets in English hospitals dominated headlines in January with Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt castigated over the crisis.

Earlier this month a health trust in Birmingham launched an investigation after a patient endured a "12 hour and 47 minutes" delay, while a Worcestershire trust was the 'only trust in England' dealing with delays in excess of 12 hours in March.

It is worth noting that since the introduction of the the 'gold standard' to either treat or discharge patients within four hours in Northern Ireland casualty departments, it has rarely been met.

All the more extraordinary then are the revelations that more than 1,800 patients in Northern Ireland hospitals endured delays in excess of 12 hours in January this year, more than treble the number the previous year.

Within these statistics, a pensioner waited 40-hours on a trolley in Antrim Area Hospital in what is believed to be one of the worst performances in the entire NHS.

The fact these appalling official statistics were published in a monthly health service report, but failed to garner even a mention by NHS officials or politicians, suggests that the spiralling waiting times have become the norm in the north and are unlikely to change given the current political stalemate.

Against this backdrop a troubleshooting 24-hour exercise resulted in Antrim's A&E attaining a top performance in it waiting times due to a shake-up of its hospital and community system and deployment of extra staff.

Improvements in Antrim since then must be commended but a senior Northern trust medical director has accepted the '100 performance' has not been sustainable - a situation which must be hugely frustrating for staff on the hospital floor.

With no health minister or Executive and civil servants now at the wheel, the exercise at Antrim hospital sends out the clearest signal yet that with increased investment and a change in management culture, waiting times will be slashed.

The fact that care has deteriorated to the point where a pensioner waited almost two days on a trolley, these changes must happen immediately.