Government says waits are getting shorter

The Department of Health's emergency care tsar Sir George Alberti gave his assessment of the NHS's performance on Tuesday.

He said the winter had been 'the best performance we have ever had'.

But doctors said there was still a long way to go.

Report findings: Nearly 500,000 more patients attended A & E this winter. Over 90% were seen and treated in under four hours - compared to 80% last winter. There were 109 12-hour waits reported compared to 1,184 in the same period last year. 71% of those aged 65 or over had a free flu jab, the highest ever take-up.

Sir George said the NHS had coped well.

He said: "Some parts of the NHS have been extremely busy this year but overall I have been very encouraged by the obvious improvements.

"We can be confident that patients will receive the same high standard of service from the NHS in January as they would expect to receive in June.

"It is due to good planning, getting new systems in place. There won't be the panics we have had in the past, with or without epidemics."

The government has set a target that all patients in A&E are treated within four hours, though health secretary John Reid has now said this may not be appropriate in all cases.

In his report to Mr Reid, Sir George said the NHS was now set up to deal with winter as part of its everyday business rather than as a 'special event'.

Improving

He said increased investment meant performance was improving and flu immunisation and attempts to increase the speed at which patients are seen in A&E had been successful.

The report highlighted the opening of extra beds as a way of dealing with temporary surges in demand, praised better collaboration with social services, and said hospitals had changed the way their staff worked.

Sir George accepted that there were still problems, but he said this was inevitable in a service that treats one million patients every 36 hours.

Mr John Heyworth, president of the British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine, said that while progress was being made, the government always claimed each winter was the best yet.

Target

He said the four-hour target for A&E was being met 90% of the time in casualty departments and this was improving services.

He added: "There is some genuine room for optimism and encouragement that the general trend is certainly better than it has been but there is still quite a long way to go."

Mr Heyworth said particular problems still existed in getting patients admitted, and hospitals could improve the situation so beds became available at the right time of day. There also continued to be shortages of doctors.

"To get more improvement is going to be very difficult," he said.

Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "It is a tribute to the hard work of frontline staff that the NHS has had a good record this winter. But there is still much more to do. Ministers risk being too complacent when reform is still needed.