Waiting times on the rise

Waiting times at University Hospital Hairmyres’A&E department have increased, according to the latest set of statistics.

Figures for the week ending Sunday, February 11 showed that 88.9 per cent of patients were seen within four hours.

This is a drop from 94.4 per cent – just short of the Scottish Government target of 95 percent – for the previous week.

It is the first time in the last four weeks that the percentage of patients seen within four hours has dropped after falling to just 62.4 per cent in the first week of January.

And the latest statistics for Hairmyres are below the NHS Lanarkshire average of 92.6 per cent of patients seen within four hours and the NHS Scotland average of 89.3 per cent.

Ten patients waited over eight hours at Hairmyres – increasing from two the previous week.

However, no patients had to wait more than 12 hours.

At NHS Lanarkshire’s other acute hospital sites, University Hospital Monklands A&E in Airdrie managed to see 94.9 per cent of patients within the four-hour target time.

At University Hospital Wishaw, the figure was 93.6 per cent.

Six patients waited more than eight hours at Wishaw while one waited within the same period of time at Monklands.

One patient was forced to wait more than 12 hours at Wishaw but no one had to wait that long at Monklands.