Dramatic improvement in Great Western Hospital’s emergency treatment figures

The latest figures available from the BBC News’ NHS Winter A&E tracker show that Great Western Hospital has made a sudden and dramatic improvement in waiting times at their emergency department.

Although the numbers attending the department are still going up, 93.6 per cent were seen within the four hour target time.  That puts GWH just 1.4 per cent below the government’s target which calls for 95 per cent of people coming to major A&E departments to be seen within four hours.

The size of the improvement can be seen from comparing the two BBC graphics (below) – one for a very busy week in February and the one showing the latest available figures.  The worst week saw GWH’s 72.9 per cent of people arriving at A&E being seen in four hours. This put GWH one from bottom of England’s 144 major hospitals.  Now they are well up the ratings curve.  

A hospital spokesman warned Marlborough News Online that these figures are changeable from week to week depending on a whole range of factors within the hospital and in the community: “The figures show a good improvement which we are working hard to sustain.”

And those waiting more than four hours to be admitted to a ward were also down by 150 to 95.  The average across England’s NHS hospitals with major A&E departments is 150.

People being looked after on trolleys for between four and twelve hours while they wait to be seen were down 37 to 33.  This is slightly above the average across England of 28.5.

Sixteen ambulances were recorded as queuing at A&E.  This was up by five on the previous week, but still well below the average for hospitals in England.

The number of people ready to leave hospital but with no appropriate place to go or care plan was up 18 to 85.  This number of ‘blocked beds’ or ‘delayed transfers of care’ was also below the average for England’s major hospitals.

And during the week of March 6-12 no bed days were lost at GWH to norovirus (the winter vomiting sickness.)

The whole issue of targets – like the four hour target for A&E – is in the spotlight again.  NHS England’s A&E Director, Professor Keith Willett recognises they have been “a powerful weapon for change.”  But he now judges them to be “Too crude, too blunt.”

And since the target was established, many more people are attending A&E departments – a million more people since 2010. The effectiveness of tight targets in crowded A&E departments is under fresh scrutiny.