‘Misleading’ A&E figures in England hiding poor performance

Emergency doctors say figures are aggregated with those of minor injury centres to get closer to targets

NHS bosses are using misleading figures to hide dangerously poor performance by A&E units in England against the four-hour treatment target, emergency department doctors claim.

Some A&Es treat and admit, transfer or discharge as few as one in three patients within four hours, although the NHS constitution says they should deal with 95% of arrivals within that timeframe.