NHS woes on agenda as MSP to meet chief executive
Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford was set to meet with Forth Valley NHS chief executive Cathie Cowan yesterday (Thursday) to discuss pressures faced by the health service over the festive period.
It follows the publication of statistics that Forth Valley Royal Hospital had failed to meet the four-hour A&E waiting times target over Christmas and New Year – with some patients having to wait more than 12 hours to be seen by medical staff.
In the final week of 2017 just 57.3 per cent of A&E patients were seen to within the four-hour target set by the Scottish Government – well below the 78 per cent achieved across Scotland.
NHS Forth Valley said they had been struggling with a big increase in patients admitted with flu and other respiratory illnesses as well as falls and slips due to icy weather.
Mr Crawford said before yesterday’s meeting: “Cold winter months bring annual challenges to our health service and the Scottish Government has committed £22.4m in resilience funding to A&E departments across the country to better enable the dedicated NHS doctors, nurses and staff to deliver a high quality and efficient service through the winter months.
“The big issue this year appears to be the significant spike in cases of flu – with a reported doubling of the number of cases at the end of 2017 compared to the same period in the previous year. This has undoubtedly brought about real strain on A&E departments.
“It will take some time for services across the country to recover, however, it is important that I hold this meeting with the health board in order to better understand the specific challenges and assess what additional support is needed.
“I would also like to take this time to express my gratitude to everyone who worked tirelessly to deliver a high quality health service over the festive period. It is this dedication that makes Scotland’s health service the best performing in the UK.”
Conservative Mid Scotland and Fife MSPs had described the long waiting times as “completely unacceptable”.
However, Scottish Government health secretary Shona Robison pointed out they are working to provide support to health boards along with the £22.4m for winter contingencies.
A Forth Valley NHS spokeswoman said this week they had“opened additional contingency beds [at the hospital] to create extra capacity”as part of their normal winter plans.
The Scottish Government is urging all eligible adults to take up the offer of free flu vaccination. Visit www. immunisationscotland.org.uk for more information.