Kinda agree with the headline.

And what exactly is he gonna do? Tell them to build new wards with more beds to speed things up? Instantly recruit more staff to increase throughput of patients?


The four hour target in some ways helped things and in some ways made things worse. It meant that patients were often inappropriately admitted, rather than being discharged home. It stopped patients waiting ages to be seen, and meant they languished waiting to be seen by the appropriate specialty. In some cases, they would be waiting in a corridor. It also meant that sometimes, the person who'd just come in with chest pains had to wait because someone with a sprained ankle was 5 mins away from breaching.


I have never seen anyone "higher" than a consultant in A&E when the sh!t hits the fan.