NHS crisis: Health secretary hints at scrapping A&E target in wake of longest waiting times on record

Matt Hancock has been accused of planning to obscure the crisis in A&E departments after hinting the four-hour waiting target will be axed.

The long-standing benchmark designed to avoid long waits – which the NHS has not achieved since 2015 – is no longer “clinically appropriate”, the health secretary suggested.

But Labour warned immediately that scrapping the target would not “magic away the problems in our overcrowded hospitals, with patients left on trolleys in corridors for hours and hours”.

“Any review of targets must be transparent and based on watertight clinical evidence, otherwise patients will think Matt Hancock is trying to move the goalposts to avoid scrutiny of the government’s record,” said Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary.

The target, requiring 95 per cent of patients attending casualty departments to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, has become a major embarrassment for ministers.

In December, it was met for only 68.6 per cent of arrivals, the lowest figure for any month since the target was created in 2004 – and the first time performance has slipped below 70 per cent.

Asked if the target would survive, Mr Hancock said: “We will be judged by the right targets. Targets have to be clinically appropriate.

“The four-hour target in A&E – which is often taken as the top way of measuring what’s going on in hospitals – the problem with that target is that increasingly people are treated on the day and are able to go home.

“It’s much better for the patient and also better for the NHS and yet the way that’s counted in the target doesn’t work.

“It’s far better to have targets that are clinically appropriate and supported by clinicians.”

The four-hour target was put under review by Theresa May’s government and changes to prioritise patients with serious conditions – while those with minor problems could wait longer than four hours – are already being trialled.

A decision about whether to scrap it altogether is due to be taken by NHS England in the coming months.

Last year, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine warned that getting rid of the A&E target would be disastrous.

“In our expert opinion scrapping the four-hour target will have a near-catastrophic impact on patient safety in many emergency departments that are already struggling to deliver safe patient care in a wider system that is failing badly,” said Dr Taj Hassan, the professional body’s president.

Mr Hancock, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, also claimed the government would solve the gathering crisis in social care within the year.

It was “extremely likely” a solution would be found in the next 12 months, he said, adding: “The PM and I are absolutely determined to solve this problem that has bedevilled people for years. We’ve got the majority. We’ve got to make it happen.”