OUR NHS IS UNDER THE WEATHER
»»3100 ops cancelled already this year »»Explosion in A&E waiting times »»Cost of bed-blocking hits £380m »»Robison blames Beast from the East
HEALTH Secretary Shona Robison yesterday tried to blame the weather for a catalogue of NHS woes.
Figures showed appalling waiting times in casualty departments, 3100 cancelled operations and a £380million bed-blocking problem.
Robison faced calls to quit after blaming the Beast from the East.
UNDER-FIRE Health Secretary Shona Robison is facing more calls to quit after shock figures exposed the strain on the NHS.
The number of people who were kept waiting more than 12 hours at A&E so far this year is almost the same as for the whole of 2017.
More than 3100 operations have already been cancelled this year.
And the cost of bed-blocking has hit an estimated £380million since Robison made a commitment to tackle the problem three years ago.
Yesterday, she blamed the severe weather for many of the recent problems.
The Beast from the East caused hundreds of operations to be cancelled because staff and patients couldn’t make it into hospital.
But opposition parties said the NHS problems go well beyond that.
Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: “Shona Robison has lost control of her brief and it is patients and staff who are losing out. It is time for her to do the decent thing and resign.”
Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “It’s time for Shona Robison to step down and let a new health secretary take the lead in delivering the support and resources NHS staff are calling out for.”
Figures from the NHS showed 52,025 people waited longer than the four-hour target at A&E this year. Last year, 1820 patients waited more than 12 hours. This year, the total is already 1799.
The number of operations cancelled because of a lack of beds and staff rose to 1200 in March.
Bad weather accounted for 36 of 68 cancellations in NHS Highland and 28 out of 50 in the Borders.
Bed-blocking, or delayed discharge from hospital, rose by two per cent in a year. Figures for March show 1370 people were still in hospital, despite being well enough to leave. That compares with 1339 people in March last year.
In 2015, Robison said she wanted to eradicate delayed discharge.
Analysis by the NHS showed the average daily cost of bed-blocking was £233 in 2015-16.
Applied to all cases between March 2015 to March 2018, the cost reaches £383million.
Tories will keep up the pressure on Robison in a Holyrood debate today on a financial scandal at NHS Tayside, which covers her Dundee constituency.
The party are demanding full financial details of all other health boards within a week, warning Robison is “on notice”.
Tory MSP Miles Briggs said: “These issues have developed on the SNP’s watch. We now need this Government to get a grip on the dire situation they’ve created.”
On cancelled ops, Robison said: “On average, 820 operations a day took place and feedback from boards has shown that the clear majority of cancellations for capacity or non-clinical reasons in March was due to the adverse weather.”
She said record A&E attendances in March were linked to the bad weather, adding: “This had a significant impact on the delivery of services across the NHS, including A&E.”