Ulster Unionist Health Spokesperson Roy Beggs MLA has accused the Health Department of being highly selective with the statistics relating to Accident & Emergency waiting times which were presented to the Assembly’s Health Committee and which could be seen as being misleading and encouraging complacency.
Speaking following the meeting, Mr Beggs said:
“The figures released to the Committee were not a valid comparison as they simply sought to compare waiting times for October 2012 with March 2012 to present a glossy picture. No account was taken of the additional annual Winter spike which would add pressures to our A&E’s. The more accurate comparison can only be with the corresponding month in the previous year.”
The figures the Health Committee were given advised that in October 2012, 80.7% of patients were seen within 4 hours at Hospitals` Accident and Emergency departments and that this was a 4.8 percentage point improvement on March 2012 when the figure was 75.9%.
The Ulster Unionist Health Spokesman said, “I am concerned that anyone reading the briefing paper could easily become complacent. The Department has been highly selective with the figures it provided to the committee which could be construed as an attempt to mask the reality of the situation. The only meaningful comparison is between October 2012 and October 2011. In fact the department`s own figures show that there had been only a 0.4% improvement since October 2011.
The local A&E performance figures do not compare favourably with the statistics available for England. The target for those being seen within 4 hours is 95%. Out of over 140 hospitals in England, all but two are 91% or above and the vast majority exceed the target. The latest NI figures for October equalled those of the worst performing trust in England. That is an unacceptable comparison given the level of discomfort and risk associated with waiting for diagnosis and treatment.
Even when the data for October 2012 are considered in isolation, it is clear that the two Hospitals which have been giving the most cause for concern – the Royal Victoria and the Antrim Area – continue to experience significant problems. The Royal has 69.4% of patients seen within four hours, the Antrim Area 67.1%. But what is of particular concern to me, my constituents and the wider population that rely on these hospitals, is that the Royal Victoria Hospital performance is 5.4% per cent worse than October 2011, and the Antrim Area Hospital A&E’s performance is 2% per cent worse. Clearly more must be done to reduce waiting times and reduce the risk of unacceptable trolley waits that were experienced last winter.”