In two months, 671 patients – an average of 11 a day – waited longer than the government-set target time in our area.

Breaches have more than quadrupled from the 119 recorded in the same period last year.

Trust managers have now nominated special ‘queue nurses’ who take patients from ambulance crews, freeing up the paramedics to return to duty.

They are also working with South Central Ambulance NHS Trust who are using a ‘split crew’ system in which only one worker stays with the patient.

This means their partner can team up with another ambulance and reduce the number of vehicles queuing outside the hospital.

via Portsmouth Today .

Thousands are being left in car parks, holding bays and corridors before being admitted to accident and emergency waiting rooms.

Critics last night blamed the failures on Labour’s strict targets, which state that 98 per cent of those admitted to A&E must be treated within four hours. 

Read full article: Mail Online.

Although the number of patients attending A&E continued to increase last year with 19.6 million visits recorded across England, NHS staff have continued to deliver the same excellent standards of care with almost all of these seen, diagnosed and treated within four hours of arriving at A&E departments.

Read full article: eGov monitor

Although the number of patients attending A&E continued to increase last year with 19.6 million visits recorded across England, NHS staff have continued to deliver the same excellent standards of care with almost all of these seen, diagnosed and treated within four hours of arriving at A&E departments.

Read full article: eGov monitor

First launched in 2007, the move is aimed at reducing admissions to the accident and emergency departments in hospitals.

The unit will be stationed on Broad Street on Friday and Saturday night.

Read full article: Nursing Times.

The reforms have paved the way for new ‘urgent care’ centres where patients can seek help for a range of ailments and injuries in the same way A & E departments do.

Dozens of the centres are planned for NHS trusts across the country in a bid to reduce the burden on A & E departments. The urgent care centres will deal with minor, non emergency cases, allowing A & E departments to direct their resources to the most serious cases.

Read full article: Emergency Services News.

Rising numbers of GP referrals have already led trusts to scrutinise their hospital activity closely, but those with high levels of referrals will now be named and shamed as the NHS publishes performance league tables for the first time.

The influential NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has calculated the number of outpatient referrals each PCT ought to have, based on the age, sex and needs of its local population, and found most need to reduce their rates substantially.

The average PCT had a referral rate 9.2% above the calculated ideal level in the quarter two figures for 2008/9, but in some areas rates were 50% higher than expected or more.

The worst performer was NHS Berkshire East, with referrals more than 61% above target, although it claimed it had already begun to use practice-based commissioning to curb referral increases.

Norma Southwood, an associate at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, said the tables would allow PCTs to compare themselves and had identified best practice in high-performing trusts.

‘This is designed to be a prompt for further analysis at trusts. It links in with other work going on at the institute, with the potential to move some activity from the acute sector into the community,’ she said.

Advice accompanying the publication of the tables outlined ‘key steps’ to achieve more efficient outpatient services, including incentivising GPs to reduce referral rates – directly contradicting official GPC advice on referral incentive schemes.

‘PCTs should introduce systems to monitor GP referral rates and provide feedback to them. PBC can be used to incentivise GPs to reduce referral levels where they are overly high,’ it said.

Read full article: Pulse Today

Temporary covers are being put on about 368 petrol nozzles at 23 petrol stations across the county.

They are designed to make people think about the health service options available instead of just using A&E when they need medical attention.

Norfolk NHS says its awareness campaign is needed because A&E departments have become a first port-of-call for many people when they need medical advice, instead of only being used in an emergency.

Between January and November last year, more than 60,000 people attended Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital A&E Department and 15,000-plus of these patients only needed a consultation and no further treatment.

A Norfolk NHS spokesman said: “A recent national survey showed that around 70 per cent of patients who attend hospital A&E departments could have used a different NHS service. This statistic is being used on the petrol pumps to encourage people to use the service in appropriate situations.”

The high numbers of people who could have been seen at alternative medical sites means that people in genuine need of urgent attention may have to wait longer than otherwise necessary, while patients with minor complaints who could be seen elsewhere are waiting unnecessarily for attention at A&E, he pointed out.

Dr Bryan Heap, NHS Norfolk’s medical director, said: “People should only be using the 999 ambulance service and hospital A&E departments in a genuine emergency.

“These are services for people who are seriously ill and in need of emergency care – they are not for minor injuries or general health problems.

“There is a wide range of NHS services available which can provide help and advice on a host of common problems and ailments and there are things people can do to help themselves, if the complaint is minor.”

Read the full article: Lynn News.