A&E crisis: It gets even worse
Performance at record low... as 1,160 patients wait over 8 HOURS
SCOTLAND’S A&E departments have recorded their worst ever performance as winter-related complaints pile pressure on hospitals.
In the last week of December, more than one in five emergency patients had treatment delayed, sparking fresh anger at the SNP’s failure to prepare the NHS for winter.
Doctors said the pressure of icy weather causing slips and trips, as well as an influx of flu cases and GP services closing for public holidays, had led to patients coming into hospital on an unprecedented scale.
Yesterday, Health Secretary Shona Robison paid tribute to NHS staff and apologised to patients facing treatment delays.
On Monday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon finally said sorry for the NHS crisis, sparking criticism her running of the health service has been a ‘shambles’. Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs described the latest findings as ‘a disgrace’.
He said: It’s widely accepted that winter is the toughest time for the NHS in terms of getting people seen to on time, but these figures are nothing short of a disgrace. ‘Just when you think the SNP’s performance on this cannot get any worse, new statistics come out showing further regressions.’
The figures for the Christmas period – the seven days ending December 31 – show only 78 per cent of emergency patients were seen within four hours, well below the Scottish Government’s 95 per cent target.
It is the lowest figure since the weekly reporting of A&E performance began in February 2015 and compares with 92.5 per cent in the comparable week the previous year.
A total of 1,156 patients spent more than eight hours in an emergency department, while 272 waited for more than 12 hours.
The poorest- performing board was NHS Forth Valley, with the Forth Valley Royal Hospital recording 57.3 per cent against the target.
Experts blamed an upsurge in flu cases and patients with complex care needs for the longer waiting times.
Dr Dan Beckett, Scottish representative of the Society for Acute Medi-
‘Needs of patients are paramount’
cine, said: ‘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 always come first – the clinical needs of our patients are paramount.’
All those eligible for the flu vaccine are being urged to take up the offer to help ease the strain on services.
But only 40 per cent of health care staff have had the jab, a figure the Health Secretary admitted yesterday was ‘lower than we would want it to be’, despite the efforts of health boards, coupled with national resources and publicity campaigns.
Miss Robison said Scotland’s accident and emergency departments were ‘continuing to outperform those across the rest of the UK’, a claim that continues to spark criticism. She added: ‘It is crucial that patients with complex care needs and flu receive the right care, not simply the fastest.
‘It will take some time for services to recover from the pressures being felt this winter and for the spikes in flu levels to subside. However, we are working to provide support to boards wherever they might need it.’
NHS Forth Valley said it had been
dealing with a ‘ significant’ i ncrease i n the number of patients with flu and other respiratory illnesses.
Medical director Andrew Murray apologised and said: ‘We are doing everything possible to reduce delays.’
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said: ‘Patients and staff will be hoping that these figures shatter the SNP government’s complacency when it comes to tackling the challenges facing our health service.’
Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘The A&E figures for the festive period are some of the worst in memory. No wonder Nicola Sturgeon felt the need to apologise, but it will be a hollow apology without meaningful action.’
Green MSP John Finnie said: ‘Too often we see Scottish ministers trying to distract from the situation by pointing to the dismantling of the NHS by the Tories in England when we should r emain f ocused on meeting our own aspirations for Scotland’s health services.’