The number of patients admitted, transferred or discharged from A&E within 4 hours of arrival as a proportion of all those attending A&E.
This indicator relates to the high level objective for improving access to and standards of services for patients. The NHS targets for 2003-2005 required that trusts ensure that, from January 2005 onwards, at least 98% of patients spend four hours or less in any type of A&E from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. Maintaining this standard has continuously been reiterated and this indicator forms part of the NHS performance ratings. Waiting time in A&E is used as an indicator of access to and the quality of emergency care. Variations in this indicator between PCTs may indicate inequalities in access and the quality of care in A&E.
This indicator has been discontinued and so there will be no further updates.
Legacy unique identifier: P01065