RCEM Emergency Department Winter Flow Project - Report for 3 March 2019
Royal College of Emergency Medicine
Our weekly Winter Flow Report (attached) provides updates on four hour standard performance at A&E, delayed transfers of care, acute bed capacity, cancelled elective operations and the number of locum staff employed within emergency departments. The report shows that in the week ending 3 March 2019, average Four Hour Standard Performance was 80.49%.
The Winter Flow data reported this week shows a welcome continued improvement in fourhour standard performance. At 80.49%, performance is 1.19 percentage points higher than was the case the previous week and at its highest point since the last week of December. Although performance is lower at this point than was the case in 2015-16 (82.82%) and 201617 (82.54%), this is the third week in succession that has seen performance improve. It is also noteworthy that performance is better than was the same point last year (78.73%).
This comes despite the largest decline in the acute bed base we have seen so far in 2019 (324). In fact, only one week of the Winter Flow Project for 2018-19 so far has seen a larger decline in bed capacity (341 in the fourth week of December). This also has the additional consequence that because the number of patients subject to delayed transfers of care in the Winter Flow group has remained relatively static (1905 this week, 1915 last week), this has accounted for a greater proportion of the available bed stock.
All this speaks of the helpful effects of the warmer weather helping to moderate the level and complexity of patient demand, and the continued hard work of the medical staff working on the front line. Although performance remains below the 85% threshold when Emergency Departments enter the ‘red zone’ ‘[at] the highest level of risk for patient and
Overall
