A&E units 'struggle to meet targets'

A British Medical Association report was today expected to find that hospital casualty departments were struggling to meet government targets for patient care.

The study, to be published later today, was expected to question whether the Government had accurately assessed how well targets were being met.

The Department of Health has said that all patients should be seen within four hours by 2004.

The president of the British Association of Emergency Medicine, Dr John Heyworth, said he thought the target would be difficult to meet.

"There is a lot of work still required to get there by the time scale," Dr Heyworth said.

"The Government may have underestimated the amount of work involved and time involved."

Dr Heyworth added that there was a problem with ensuring patients were transferred from hospital to social or community care beds, freeing up beds needed by acutely ill patients seen in accident and emergency departments.

"Things have been improving and we're always optimistic, but the rate of change is slower than we would like it to be," he told the BBC.