A&E patients sent to wards ... to hit targets

Calls for probe into ‘dangerous’ practice

PAtIentS are being admitted to hospital just to meet A&e waiting time targets, health bosses have said.

those who have endured long waits in casualty units are ‘often’ being taken onto wards to ‘achieve targets’.

the unprecedented comments were made in a report by bosses at one of Scotland’s biggest health boards.

Critics have demanded an urgent investigation by Health Secretary Shona Robison to see if the ‘potentially dangerous’ practice is widespread.

the Scottish Government wants to crack down on ‘unnecessary’ hospital stays because being admitted has risks for patients such as exposure to infections and loss of independence, as well as taking up beds.

But a recent meeting of nHS Lothian reported that patients were taken from A&e onto wards to avoid them waiting longer than 12 hours. the comments, by deputy chief executive Jim Crombie, are published in its latest board papers.

Patients were also put up in makeshift wards in areas not ‘designated for inpatients’ during times of high demand.

nHS Lothian said the remarks had been a ‘mistake’ and that it would be ‘unthinkable’ to admit patients when there was no need to do so.

nHS Lothian board papers state: ‘the deputy chief executive commented that, as a consequence of the 12-hour wait target, often decisions were taken to admit patients to achieve targets.’

yesterday Mr Crombie said

‘Very worrying state of affairs’

there had been a mistake in the written minutes.

But Dr nick Scriven, of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: ‘this finding is of no shock for those in acute medicine units in all parts of the uK.

‘It is sadly a frequent observation that given time pressure and targets it is simply easier and quicker for an A&e department to admit a patient than address what might be complex underlying chronic issues.’

Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘these are truly shocking revelations.

‘Shona Robison must urgently launch a national investigation to establish if this potentially dangerous practice is going on across the country.’

Miles Briggs, Scottish tory health spokesman, said: ‘It is a very worrying state of affairs when patients are being admitted to hospital simply to massage statistics.’

In a statement, Mr Crombie said: ‘A mistake was made in the written minutes of the public board meeting of nHS Lothian and we apologise for the confusion this has caused.

‘there is no 12-hour performance waiting time and nHS Lothian simply does not admit patients to hospital to achieve waiting time targets – we do not have the capacity to do that.

‘the minute was intended to capture a summary update of unscheduled care performance at a time when our services were under unprecedented pressure. It describes how extra capacity was being created for acutely ill patients to help cope with the exceptional demand.

‘It would have been unthinkable to admit patients who did not require it.’