----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Cartwright"
> Not at all. Our Chief Exec has been down essentially
> asking us to fudge the trolley wait figures by
> redefining wait times as starting after the patient
> has been clerked. As far as I'm concerned decision to
> admit starts at arrival time for lodged admissions and
> from time of referral for A&E attenders being
> admitted.
Notwithstanding Goat's problem over definition of admission, I assume the
above fudging of "trolley waits" will now be consigned to history. The Audit
Commission report foregoes this definition, and replaces it with the "wait
for admission" which it defines simply as the "time from arrival in A&E to
admission to a hospital bed". The commission states that the "wait for
admission" will supesede the "trolley wait" in the NHS plan. This "wait for
admission" will naturally include the "wait to see a doctor", but also the
diagnosis time, the referral time and the admission time (only the latter
being roughly equivalent to the old "trolley wait"). Good news for us I
think...
Adrian Fogarty
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