ACCIDENT and Emergency waiting times have been a hot topic for some time.

In the last quarter, just 77.7 per cent of people who went to A&E in Colchester General Hospital were dealt with within the required four-hour period.

The Government benchmark is 95 per cent and only Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust fared worse than Colchester’s, at 73.8 per cent.

But Dr David Gannon, divisional director of urgent care at the hospital, has outlined plans which he says will increase the trust’s poor figures, which includes a £1million upgrade of the how A&E is run.

A clinical decision unit has now opened in A&E, which allows patients to be admitted for 12 hours while further assessment is carried out.

Alongside it, a surgical assessment unit specialises in assessing if patients will need surgery.

Patients can stay there for up to 12 hours.

Together, the units can treat up to 130 patients.

A frail and elderly unit allows patients to stay for up to two days and a new medical day unit is set to open at the end of May.

Dr Gannon said: “The whole process is changing to one of assess to admit.

“Unfortunately, the idea has always been we have to admit somebody and then assess them.

“That’s because it is quite hard to know if you want to admit someone.

“The idea of these changes is to get that diagnosis in much earlier by a senior doctor.”

He added: “The vast majority of cases which come through A&E do not need acute hospital treatment.

“We want to be able to assess who will need acute treatment before we admit them.

“We want to move away from the traditional A&E experience where you’re admitted and hooked up to electrodes to much more of a consultation style.”

In particular, the medical decision unit is due to open in May, if not before.

It will be open between 10am and 10pm and will be headed up by senior doctors who are able to make quicker clinical decisions on patients’ diagnosis.

Dr Gannon added: “Some people will have to go into a bed, it’s true. But for others, we will be able to say ‘come back the next day’, your bed at home is always going to be more comfortable and you don’t require urgent care.

“The traditional reliance on beds in hospitals means we’re clogged up and we’re getting hammered in patient and ambulances waiting times.”

Dr Gannon also insisted: “This isn’t a way to bust the queues, but it is definitely best for patients.

“The NHS has traditionally been admit and then assess and that leads to the reliance on beds here in the hospital.”

He said hospital leaders are thoroughly going through Ipswich Hospital’s latest Care Quality Commission report – in which it was labelled outstanding.

“Of course we are looking to improve and there are interesting things Ipswich is doing which we have looked at.”

Dr Gannon, who has worked at the Colchester trust for about eight years, pointed to how staff from other parts of the Suffolk hospital are diverted to A&E if “things are getting a bit hot” as something which could potentially be implemented in Colchester.

He added as result of the changes in Colchester: “We will see a better four-hour standard adherence, a better patient experience and hopefully happier staff as well.”