§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what action his Department has taken to reduce waiting times for admission to accident and emergency departments from ambulances. [85764]
§ Mr. LammyThe Government are committed to bringing down waiting times for all accident and emergency (A&E) patients, no matter how they arrive at the A&E department. By the end of 2004, virtually all patients should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival at A&E.
If for any reason a patient who arrives by ambulance is not transferred in to A&E within 15 minutes, the patient is nevertheless then treated as having arrived at A&E for the purposes of measuring performance against the four hour target.
Where local delays occur they can be addressed through emergency care networks—which bring together all local participants in the emergency care system to iron out problems and spread good practice—and the emergency care collaborative, a new national programme aimed at reducing waiting times for all A&E patients.