Improvement in waiting times hailed by health secretary

Health Secretary Shona Robison has hailed the improved waiting times performance at hospital accident and emergency departments as a “really significant achievement”.

Despite flu rates in Scotland being almost five times higher than they were a year ago, new figures showed A&E staff across the country admitted, transferred or discharged 85.8% of all patients within the four-hour target.

That is well below the Scottish Government target of having 95% of patients dealt with in this time, but is up from the previous week, when the four hour standard was achieved for less than four of out five (77.9%) people in A&E.

In Fife, 85.4% were dealt with within four hours, compared with Tayside’s 97.3%.

In the first week of January 2018, a total 470 people had to spend more than 12 hours in A&E.

Figures for week ending January 14 showed this had dropped to 118, while 552 patients waited over eight hours, down from 1,449 in the previous week.

Emergency department staff dealt with a total of 22,883 cases over the course of the week – a reduction from the 25,280 patients who needed treatment in the first seven days of 2018.

Ms Robison said: “Our A&E departments are continuing to be impacted by the pressures and demand of winter, so these improving statistics are a really significant achievement.”