Testing new urgent and emergency care access standards

From 22 May, we are testing proposed new access standards for urgent and emergency care. The testing will run for two, six-week phases and we are one of 14 pilot sites, along with Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust. There will be a review between the two phases. You can read more about the testing here.

The three measures we are testing are:

• time to initial assessment
• time in A&E
• treatment within the first hour for critically ill and injured patients (from phase 2).

During the testing period: 

• we will continue to use our existing escalation processes to help us ensure patient safety
• we will continue to monitor performance against the new standards
• we will not publicly report or publish performance against either the new new standards or the four-hour standard.

NHS England will undertake an evaluation of the testing and publish the results.

Weekly A&E performance data

The national accident and emergency waiting time standard requires us to ensure at least 95 per cent of patients are discharged or admitted within four hours. While the standard is for all types of patients, we breakdown our performance by hospital site and patient type.

Patient types

• Type 1: A consultant-led 24-hour service with full resuscitation facilities; applies to emergency departments at Charing Cross and St Mary’s hospitals.
• Type 2: A consultant-led single specialty A&E service (e.g. ophthalmology); applies to the emergency department at Western Eye Hospital.
• Type 3: Minor injury units and urgent care centres (UCCs); applies to UCCs at Charing Cross, Hammersmith and St Mary’s hospitals.
  
  

Hospital sites

Reporting period: week ending 19 May 2019

Charing Cross Hospital

Attendances at A&E type 1	Percentage of patients seen in four hours
845	77.87%

Attendances at the urgent care centre type 3	Percentage of patients seen in four hours
770	98.83%

Hammersmith Hospital

Attendances at the urgent care centre type 3	Percentage of patients seen in four hours
584	100%

St Mary’s Hospital

Attendances at A&E type 1 (adults)	Percentage of patients seen in four hours
1,077	65.74%

Attendances at A&E type 1 (paediatrics)	Percentage of patients seen in four hours
428	93.22%

Attendances at the urgent care centre type 3	Percentage of patients seen in four hours
900	99.33%

Western Eye Hospital

Attendances at the ophthalmology emergency department type 2	Percentage of patients seen in four hours
1,012	99.70%

Overall performance

All attendances	Percentage of patients seen in four hours
5,616	89.26%

The data provided is correct at the time of publishing, however further retrospective validation may result in minor corrections.

For further information on our performance, please see our monthly infographic here.