Patients face 'unnecessary delays'

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

In the most comprehensive review of NHS emergency and urgent care services, the Healthcare Commission found wide variations in how patients across England are treated.

People are confused over where to seek help, face unnecessary delays on being admitted to hospital, and some out-of-hours care is poor, it said.

More than one in three out-of-hours services cannot demonstrate that they meet national requirements on assessing patients within a set time-frame.

The Commission also found that the proportion of calls prioritised as "urgent" in out-of-hours care varied from under 4% to more than 32% between services, "raising questions" over consistency.

There were also fears over how quickly patients taken to A&E in an ambulance start receiving care.

In some A&E departments, for 95% of the time, ambulances are back on the road within 15 minutes of delivering a patient, but in other departments this figure is as low as 10%.

Overall, 50 (33%) primary care trust (PCT) areas were ranked "best performing" in urgent and emergency care, 41 (27%) were better performing, 33 (22%) were fair performing and 28 (18%) were least well performing.

However, the Commission did note improvements in some areas, with a rise in the number of people treated at A&E within the four-hour Government target, from 91.2% in 2003/04 to 97.9% in 2007/08.

Anna Walker, chief executive of the Healthcare Commission, said: "How an area deals with emergency and urgent care is absolutely a cornerstone of 21st century care. There remains issues for patients about access to these services."