20,000 suffer delays at A&E f lagship unit

ALMOST 20,000 patients have suffered delays in the accident and emergency department of Scotland’s flagship new hospital. Politicians yesterday revealed a ‘horror’ A&E record at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

Since it opened in May 2015, a total of 19,577 of the 159,123 patients attending A&E waited more than four hours to be seen.

The disclosure follows revelations in the Scottish Daily Mail about chaos in the £842million super-hospital this winter, with experts from NHS England drafted in to deal with it.

An NHS whistleblower said the hospital was so busy patients were treated on trolleys in corridors while hooked up to antibiotic and fluid drips.

Scottish Lib Dem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton criticised bosses after research by his party disclosed the A&E waits since its opening.

He said it meant its average A&E performance rate was just 87.7 per cent of patients being seen in four hours, against the Scottish Government’s 95 per cent target.

It has only hit the target during two weeks out of the 92 weeks since it opened.

The worst week, ending January 8, saw 465 patients wait more than four hours, which was a quarter of A&E attendances. The Lib Dems said its trend in performance is ‘downwards’.

The latest figures for Scotland show 91.3 per cent of patients were seen within four hours in A&E in the first week of February and the Queen Elizabeth had the lowest compliance of any site.

Last night a hospital spokesman apologised to patients who had faced long waits.

But Mr Cole-Hamilton said: ‘If you are a potential patient in

‘Reveals a real horror story’

Glasgow this new analysis reveals a real horror story. Some 20,000 patients have waited long periods in A&E since the flagship QEUH opened.

‘It confirms that, for almost two years, ministers and health bosses have been unable to get a grip of the situation there.

‘They are consistently underperforming. Their interventions evidently haven’t worked and the situation is getting worse.’

He added: ‘Things can’t continue like this. Patients and their families will want to know why they have failed and how they are now going to turn this around.

‘A&E staff are working incredibly hard in an often stressful environment. Health bosses and ministers need to perform an urgent operation and ensure they have the resources they need to do their jobs.’

A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: ‘We are fully committed to ensuring that patients are seen, treated and either admitted or discharged as quickly as possible. Performance figures for emergency departments will always fluctuate.

‘However, the majority of patients were seen, assessed, treated and either admitted or discharged within the four-hour target. Most of those patients who did not meet the four-hour target were either admitted or discharged shortly thereafter.’

He added: ‘We apologise to those patients who waited longer than this. However, medical attention will always be clinically prioritised for those who most urgently require it.

‘All our emergency departments have seen an increased number of patients coming to our emergency departments and requiring hospital admission.

‘Our staff have been working incredibly hard putting in new measures to ensure we continue to head in the right direction.’