Patients left waiting half adayinA&E units at city hospitals
Political Correspondent The number of patients waiting more than half a day at Glasgow’s two Accident and Emergency departments has risen sharply, to more than 100 a week.
There was almost a doubling of patients waiting for more than 12 hours at the Royal Infirmary from 29 to 56.
At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital the increase was 50% from 44 in the last week of 2017 to 66 in the first week of 2018.
Just five weeks earlier no-one waited more than 12 hours at either hospital.
The rate for patients seen within four hours was 67.6% for the Queen Elizabeth and 66.5% for the Royal.
Both Glasgow hospitals were well below the Scottish Government target of 95% and below the Scottish figure of 77.9% for the week, although both had improved slightly on the previous week.
The increase in flu this winter has been blamed for putting pressure on the wider NHS.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said that the flu rates had doubled, putting pressure on admissions and resources. However, she said, focusing on the four-hour target, A&E performance was relatively unchanged.
Ms Robison said: “Despite the flu rate doubling in a week, A & E performance remained broadly the same, with nearly four out of five people attending A&E admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours. I thank again all health and social care staff who are delivering such fantastic patient care in this tough period.”
Opposition MSPs were less generous in their assessment and said it showed the NHS was not being properly funded.
Anas Sarwar, Labour health spokesman and Glasgow MSP, said: “This clearly shows the winter pressure continues. It is inaccurate to say this is only at winter or to say waiting times have stabilised.
“We are seeing people having to wait longer particularly those waiting more than 12 hours.
“This shows resource is not meeting demand. Our NHS staff are overworked, undervalued and under-resourced and that NHS is being mismanaged by Shona Robison.”
The health board apologised for the long waits and said Glasgow hospitals, like others, were “extremely busy” with winter pressures.
A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “We planned for these winter pressures by creating extra capacity such as extra inpatient beds at Gartnavel general Hospital.
“These winter beds are currently being used as part of our response to the winter pressures we are experiencing.
“Due to the high level of demand, a number of our patients have waited longer than we would have liked to be seen, diagnosed, treated and either admitted or discharged and we apologise to those patients who experienced lengthy waits.”