ENGLAND'S four-hour A&E waiting time target could be scrapped after the country's NHS recorded its worst performance figure on record, the Health Secretary has hinted.
Official data showed only 79.8% of emergency patients were seen within four hours in December. This was the worst performance ever against the target that 95% of A&E patients should be seen and treated, discharged or admitted to hospital within that timescale.
NHS England was already piloting new targets so patients with the most serious conditions receive treatment within an hour while others with more minor complaints wait longer.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggested the trials could become permanent across the country when he was questioned about the NHS's performance under the Tories.
"We will be judged by the right targets," he told BBC Radio 5 Live. "Targets have to be clinically appropriate."
He continued: "The four-hour target in A&E - which is often taken as the top way of measuring what's going on in hospitals - the problem with that target is that, increasingly, people can be treated on the day and able to go home.
"That is much better for the patient and also better for the NHS, and yet the way that's counted in the target doesn't work."
The SNP frequently receive criticism from opposition parties in Scotland - including the Tories - about A&E figures.
Responding to Hancock, Royal College of Emergency Medicine president Dr Katherine Henderson said: "We agree with trying to improve on the standard and have been happy to explore alternatives that drive patient flow and improve experience.
"However, so far seen we've seen nothing to indicate that a viable replacement for the four-hour target exists and believe that testing should soon draw to a close."
The NHS England figures also showed that more people than ever are on waiting lists for treatment.
At Prime Minister's Questions Boris Johnson conceded waiting times are "unacceptable" and promised "we will get those waiting lists down".
Labour's shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said: "Changing the A&E target won't magic away the problems in our overcrowded hospitals, with patients left on trolleys in corridors for hours and hours.
"Any review of targets must be transparent and based on watertight clinical evidence, otherwise patients will think Matt Hancock is trying to move the goalposts to avoid scrutiny of the Government's record.
"After years of austerity under the Tories, the Government's first priority must be to give the NHS the funding and staff it needs to end the waiting time crisis."
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