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Clearly the government got such a "hammering" over the farce at the end of March, that they have now come to their senses! AF > -----Original Message----- > From: Dr Matthew Cooke > To: John Heyworth > Subject: Future monitoring of emergency care access target > > John > > You raised the issue of whether there will be another monitoring week. I am > pleased to say there will not! > > The focus has now moved to achieving the 100% target in the medium term > and sustainability of 90% in the short term. (All patients will spend less > than 4 hours in the A&E department from time of arrival to discharge or > admission; observation wards and clinical decision units are not considered > to be in the main A&E department if they are proper ward > like environments with separately allocated nursing staff, whoever is the > specialist looking after them.) Trusts have been informed of the criteria > for performance ratings in 2003-4. For emergency care, these will be that > all Trusts will need to maintain performance at a minimum of 90% over the > last three quarters of the year (i.e. from 1 July 2003 to 31 March 2004). > This will be measured as an average over each month of that period. This > allows for some slight variation within month but ensures that trusts will > not be able to wait until the end of the year to improve performance. > > Following our discussions last week it is hoped that the official > clarification on issues of clinical exceptions to the 100% target will be > released over the summer. > > I am happy for you to circulate this to members if you wish. > > Regards > Matthew > > Dr Matthew Cooke > Emergency Medicine Advisor, Dept of Health