Accident and Emergency Departments: Standards

(asked on 6th February 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to achieve the 95 per cent four-hour A&E waiting time in (a) Herefordshire and (b) England.


Answered by
Stephen Hammond Portrait
Stephen Hammond
This question was answered on 14th February 2019

Wye Valley NHS Trust is taking several steps to improve accident and emergency performance in its locality. The Trust received £3.6 million capital funding in 2018 to create a modular build 24 bedded ward – increasing its overall bed base capacity to 246. The Trust has also established a ‘front-door frailty service’ within the Emergency Department to support patients outside of hospital admissions where clinically appropriate. In addition, the Trust is currently recruiting to additional clinical staff within the Emergency Department, including consultant posts across medical specialities to deliver robust seven-day working.

Nationally, NHS England’s ‘Operational and Planning Guidance for 2019/20’ sets out deliverables against key performance areas and the Government expects the National Health Service to deliver these actions in full as key steps towards fully recovering performance against core access standards.

The NHS Long Term Plan, launched by the NHS on 7 January 2018, will transform urgent and emergency care. The plan is supported by a £20.5 billion real terms investment by 2023/24.

The Government has also supported the NHS with an additional £1.6 billion for 2018/19 to improve emergency and elective performance. In addition, more than £420 million has been provided specifically for this winter.

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