A&E patients more likely to be admitted near waiting target

PATIENTS at A&Es in Greater Manchester are more likely to be admitted to hospital the closer they get to the waiting target time.

It is not clear if hospitals are admitting patients in an attempt to meet targets, as patients may have needed to spend time in casualty being assessed before a decision to admit can be made.

A&E departments have a target that 95 per cent of patients should not wait longer than four hours before being admitted, discharged or transferred.

On average, 20.2pc of patients arriving at Manchester University NHS trust’s A&Es in 2017/18 were eventually admitted.

However, for patients who spent between three hours and 51 minutes and four hours ●●A&E departments have a target that 95 per cent of all patients should not wait longer than four hours before being admitted, discharged or transferred in A&E, 53.1pc were admitted to hospital – 2.6 times the average rate, the biggest gap in the area.

At Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh’s A&Es, 65.4pc of patients were admitted in the last 10 minutes before the four-hour waiting time target, 2.2 times the 30.4pc who were admitted overall, while it was 53.1pc compared to 25.2pc at Bolton NHS Trust.

Overall, there were 1.19m visits to A&Es in Greater Manchester last year, of which 282,625 led to people being admitted, according to the figures from NHS Digital.

Of those admitted, 55,615 were admitted in the last 10 minutes before the four-hour waiting time limit, and 102,115 were admitted after waiting more than four hours. In 2017/18, just 78.7pc of patients who visited A&Es run by Stockport NHS Trust waited less than four hours to admission, discharge or transfer, the worst performance in Greater Manchester.

Also among the poorest performance locally in 2017/18 was 80.9pc at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh, 83.6pc at Pennine Acute, and 86.5pc at Manchester University NHS Trust.

Across England, patients who have spent three hours and 51 minutes in A&E are 2.3 times more likely to be admitted than the average patient. On average, 19.2pc of patients arriving at A&E were eventually admitted in 2017/18.

However, for patients who spent between three hours and 51 minutes and four hours in A&E, 45.1pc were admitted to hospital. For those who waited more than four hours, half [50.1pc] were admitted.