If you were hoping for a solution to flow in the ED then this is not the post for you. Rather it’s an appeal and a cry of pain from all UK clinicians who work in emergency departments for politicians and journalists to understand what the 4-hour target is.
It is the percentage of patients seen and DISCHARGED OR ADMITTED within 4 hours.
Journalists regularly mistake this as the time that people wait to be seen in the ED which of course is entirely different. Yesterday Jeremy Hunt was questioned in the commons about the current crisis in the ED and even the opposition front bench mistook the 4 hour standard as wait to be seen and not the time it takes for us to completely sort patients out and either get them home or into a hospital bed.
Even Wikipedia is unclear on the matter, and so it’s perhaps not surprising that everyone is confused. The King’s fund does much better and has some excellent research in the area.
Does this matter? Well I would argue that it does. From a public perception if we are failing to even assess people within 4 hours that does indeed sound awful. The idea that we have to complete the ED journey within 4 hours must surely be understood as a more challenging task. If it were just a wait to be seen then in all honesty we’d be running at well over 100% already (if you include triage which you should).
So. An appeal that perhaps no journalist or politician will read. Please get it right and stop emergency clinicians shouting at the TV or radio every time you get it wrong. We’re under enough stress as it is.