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PUBLIC SERVICE PERFORMANCE FIGURES REVEALED AS GOVERNMENT UNVEILS RAFT OF NEW MEASURES TO SIMPLIFY EVERYDAY ADMIN THE MAJORITY of accident and emergency patients have to wait at least two
hours to be treated, a new report on the efficiency of French public services has revealed. The study found only 45% of _Urgences_ admissions were handled within the two-hour target, and 23%
of people had to wait four hours or more. The official report, which the government says is the first of its kind, was published to coincide with the announcement of a series of new
measures designed to simplify everyday administrative tasks and cut waiting times across the civil service. All the public services examined had difficulty dealing with people's written
requests for help and complaints. Some 52% of letters are answered within a fortnight and only 69% are assigned to the right department on arrival. Other areas of the French administration
fared better: healthcare refunds submitted electronically were generally refunded within three to four days and paper _feuille de soins_ within a fortnight. _The Connexion_ reported in March
that the government was looking to make it possible for people to carry out a host of bureaucratic tasks online. Budget Minister François Baroin has now confirmed the launch of the online
service that will provide a central point of contact for all public services. The site, which will be part of mon.service-public.fr, will make it easier to declare changes to several public
services in one go - such as a new address, the setting up of a business or a death. Most of the site will be functional this autumn and the rest will launch by 2012. The government hopes to
cut the number of official websites it runs from 400 to 40 by then and make its online communications more coherent and consistent. RELATED STORIES: France's red tape to all go online
Waiting time test for civil service Photo:emmanuel Féré - Fotolia.com