Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the average waiting time in the accident and emergency department at James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was in each of the last five years.
Weekly situation reports collected by NHS England are the official source of information about accident and emergency (A&E) waiting times. These measure the number of patients admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival at an A&E department, but do not provide information on average waiting times.
Information is available in hospital episode statistics (HES) on average waiting times to assessment, treatment and departure in A&E departments. Information for James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for the relevant years is shown in the following table. The duration to departure times are most closely aligned to the official information.
Mean and median duration (minutes) to assessment, treatment and departure in A&E at James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from 2008-09 to 2012-13. | ||||||
Year | Mean duration to assessment | Median duration to assessment | Mean duration to treatment | Median duration to treatment | Mean duration to departure | Median duration to departure |
2008-09 | 50 | 36 | 53 | 39 | 124 | 112 |
2009-10 | 50 | 36 | 52 | 38 | 127 | 115 |
2010-11 | 45 | 30 | 45 | 31 | 131 | 114 |
2011-12 | 43 | 26 | 50 | 35 | 140 | 124 |
2012-13 | 41 | 21 | 56 | 42 | 142 | 135 |
Source: HES, Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Notes:
1. The table shows the mean (average) and median (middle in ranking when all values are sorted in order) duration in minutes to assessment, treatment or departure.
2. Planned attendances are excluded.
3. The recording of duration in HES A&E is not mandatory, and this may have affected in particular the quality of recorded durations to assessment and treatment.
4. Duration to assessment is the time in minutes between the patients’ arrival and their initial assessment in the A&E department. This is calculated as the difference in time from arrival at A&E to the time when the patient is initially assessed.
5. Duration to treatment is the time in minutes between the patients’ arrival and the start of their treatment. This is calculated as the difference in time from arrival at A&E to the time when the patient began treatment.
6. Duration to departure is time spent in minutes in an A&E department. This is calculated as the difference in time from arrival at A&E to the time when the patient is discharged from A&E care. This includes being admitted to hospital, dying in the department, discharged with no follow up or discharged and referred to another specialist department.
7. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage and changes in National Health Service practice.