ACCIDENT and emergency units in Gwent are beginning to achieve an elusive waiting times target on a more consistent basis – despite further increases in patient numbers.

Ninety-five per cent of people attending A&E should be dealt with inside four hours, but despite considerable investment over several years, the figure had proved unattainable.

A&E performance figures for August showed improvements in the units at the Royal Gwent in Newport and Nevill Hall in Abergavenny – and an Aneurin Bevan Health Board states that early figures for September indicate the 95 per cent rate being achieved “consistently”

at both units.

“There were occasions throughout August where the Royal Gwent Hospital reached 100 per cent compliance, while Nevill Hall managed to reach 95 per cent on a more consistent basis,” states the report.

“This has been maintained also over the first two weeks of September.”

The target is set at 95 per cent to reflect the fluctuations that can occur in patient numbers in A&E, with sudden increases in demand often making it difficult to ensure all patients are dealt with inside four hours.

At the Royal Gwent, the A&E unit has been reorganised both physically and in terms of staffing, with rotas redesigned to try to ensure staff numbers and the mix of skills they provide better match periods of greater activity.

Heartening for A&E staff is that recent improvements have been achieved against a 1.5 per cent increase in the number of patient attendances in Gwent this year compared to last.

If this rate is matched until the end of next March, that will have meant a seven per cent increase in A&E attendances in four years, or an additional 8,500 patients a year.