Assessing the Impact of Deprivation on Emergency Care Target Achievement in England

The past decade has seen a collapse in the achievement of the 4-hour target (the most commonly used tool in assessing performance of emergency care in England), paired with a leveling off, or worsening, of a number of health outcomes. The ‘health gap’ between those in more, or less, deprived regions is increasing (figure 1). Given the firm evidence that poorer emergency care performance and overcrowding are leading to patient harm; this piece sets out to find evidence of whether deprivation is having an impact on the achievement of the 4-hour target, which could be causing disproportionate harm to those people from more deprived parts of England.