CRISIS ..SNOT CRISIS
Political war of words as 107,689 Scots wait in A&E longer than 4-hour target
A FLOOD of flu cases is pushing Scotland’s already under-siege accident and emergency units to crisis point.
Figures showed waiting times at a record high – with 5686 patients in a single week being kept hanging on for more than four hours before
being admitted, treated or discharged. Of those, 1156 had to wait more than eight hours and 272 for more than 12 hours. Only 78 per cent of patients were dealt with in four hours or less, against a target of 95 per cent. That’s the worst performance since the weekly reporting of waiting times began in February 2015. The figure for the same week last year was 92.5 per cent. Flu cases are double what they were last winter and A&E units have been under additional pressure from accidents caused by snow and ice. Dr Dan Beckett, Scottish representative of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “Falls and slips as a result of the icy weather and public holidays have put pressure on hospitals and A&E departments. “However, flu has had a significant additional impact on most acute medical units. “We are seeing numbers of patients requiring admission to hospital at a scale we haven’t seen for several years. “And patients who are frail or have other medical conditions are requiring several days in hospital before they are able to be discharged. “While we do not want any delay to patient treatment, ensuring that patients with flu are admitted to, and cared for in the right place must