Edinburgh Napier University

  Aims and Objectives: to undertake an analysis of UK national daily newspaper coverage of accident and emergency treatment targets, in order to understand if the media could be seen to be creating a scandal.
Background: Emergency Department treatment targets have become common in developed countries. In the United Kingdom (UK), hospitals are required to treat and discharge patients within four hours, and statistics are published daily. Breaches of targets are regularly reported by the UK print media.
Design: exploratory research of tabloid newspaper articles that reported on four-hour treatment targets in the UK during a seven-month period over the winter of 2014-15 (n=1,317). An interpretivist thematic approach was utilised during analysis.
Results: The main ‘problem’ identified by newspapers was the failure to meet the target, rather than negative effects on patient care (where they existed). Proposed solutions were diverse. Many articles did not describe who was to blame for the failure.
Conclusion: We conclude that the media created a feeling of scandal, and hypothesise that this is related to political reasons and the availability of data on a daily basis.