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This got me worried as my trust has struggled recently with A&E target. However, reviewing the contract i can't see any mechanism for imposing a £2.5 million fine mid way through a year. Any details on how they have managed to impose such a heavy penalty on a target that is full year and limited to 2% of A&E service line in the contract? I can't believe that the trust will have a £100 million A&E department. Ours is only about £6-7 million, and I would have thought even the biggest trusts would not be more than £15-20 mill. Even then the penalty is a full year penalty, not something that can be imposed at the end of the 1st quarter. I assume that this is not something outside of the contract, otherwise what is the point of agreeing a contract with penalties etc detailed? Perhaps they have some additional clauses in their contract that placed much hevier penalties on A&E performance than the national standard?