Ministers 'in danger of missing target to cut A&E waiting times'

Ministers are in danger of missing a crucial target to cut accident and emergency waiting times despite Tony Blair's personal intervention, the head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit said yesterday.

Ensuring that no patient should wait more than four hours for treatment in casualty is one of the Government's most intractable problems, said Professor Michael Barber, the man employed to ensure targets across the Government are met. Mr Blair started monitoring progress in July, when Professor Barber identified serious problems which could prevent the target being met by the Government's self-imposed deadline of autumn 2004.

Yesterday, Professor Barber told members of the Commons Public Administration Committee that the target was one of just "eight or nine" problems rated severe enough to warrant Mr Blair's personal intervention.

He said that the issue of accident and emergency waiting times needed addressing. "The Health Service is making progress, but the target is for completion in 2004 and there is a great deal to do. The target for accident and emergency is that nobody should wait more than four hours for treatment. At the moment the Health Service is some way short of achieving that." Professor Barber's intervention reignited the dispute over health targets. Last month, he warned in a confidential report to Mr Blair there was an "immense risk" that the NHS would fail to take advantage of the Government's record cash injection. His report warned of "very significant challenges" in using the extra funds properly.

Latest figures show that nearly a quarter of patients spend more than four hours in accident and emergency.

Michael Howard, the shadow Chancellor, responded to Professor Barber's comments by saying: "It is clear that Mr Blair is in a panic. Despite extra funding, Labour is failing many targets. Their inability to meet those targets goes to the heart of the Government's failure to improve public services.

"Labour are failing because they are not reforming public services. Mr Brown and Mr Blair have done so badly that some Government departments have tried to avoid publishing their target assessments altogether, contrary to promises from the Government. Every failed public service target is a broken promise made by Labour to the British people."

Professor Barber, who is known in Whitehall as the Prime Minister's "Mr Targets", also revealed that he learnt of the Prime Minister's guarantee to halve the number of asylum applications by September, when he saw Mr Blair's pledge on the television.

He said the pledge to reduce the number of asylum-seekers was the Government's most pressing target, which demanded "high intensity working" from the Prime Minister. Figures to be published today will show that the number of asylum-seekers arriving in Britain last year passed the 100,000 barrier for the first time.