A&E Wards Miss Waiting Time Targets

9.01.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 18th Oct 2004

The National Audit office has presented figures to parliament showing that across London every major hospital is missing the target of no patients having to wait for treatment in A&E for over four hours.

But local hospitals have registered some improvement, especially Kingston. In the period April-June 2004, the percentage of patients waiting over 4 hours in A&E in Kingston was 3% as against 25.5% in the period a year earlier; West Middlesex has improved, but less spectacularly, to 7.5% from 10%.

Vincent Cable, MP, said that "no one should have to wait over four hours in an emergency ward before getting medical attention. But it is gratifying that Kingston has gone from being almost the worst hospital in London to the best. The West Middlesex is improving too but there are still far too many long waits".