Experts sent in to cut delays at new hospital

Patients left on trolleys for hours at state-of-art unit

EXPERTS are being sent in to help tackle delays in Scotland’s newest hospital as NHS managers admit problems are taking longer than they expected to resolve.

Figures show the accident and emergency department of the £842 million South Glasgow University Hospital, which has been fully operational for a matter of weeks, continues to have some of the worst queues in the country.

Fewer people are spending more than eight hours on trolleys in corridors waiting for beds compared to the height of winter – when a capacity crisis saw hospitals struggling to accommodate patients in many parts of the UK.

However, the latest figures show 78 per cent of A&E patients are dealt with within four hours in the new hospital compared to the Scottish Government target of 95 per cent and a national performance of 92 per cent.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has also confirmed there have been times when it has taken longer than usual for them to handover patients to staff in the new building.

Robert Calderwood, chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said it was “extremely disappointing” that success in hitting waiting times targets for planned procedures in the hospital have not been matched in emergency care “as quickly as anticipated”.

He said it had been expected that there would be some “challenges” as services transferred into the SGUH, which centralises three separate A&E departments.

He continued: “Our teams have responded quickly to these challenges, and have already made a number of systems changes to enhance patient flow throughout the hospital.

“However it is taking longer than expected for an improved A&E performance to be achieved and we therefore welcome the assistance of Scottish Government colleagues who will work with our senior managers and clinicians to use their combined expertise to identify further measures to assist with the bedding-in of services and systems and to achieve the improvements in patient flow required.”

He apologised to patients who have suffered delays being admitted to a ward bed after being assessed and diagnosed by doctors.

David Foster, from Newlands in Glasgow, described spending 10 hours on a trolley in the A&E after hurting his back.

He said he arrived at 1.20pm, had to endure three hours without pain relief, and was not taken to a ward until 11.30pm.

He said: “The worst thing about it is that they didn’t tell me what was happening. If they had told me, ‘you are such and such in a queue’ that would have helped.

“They didn’t tell my partner if he could come through to see me so he was left in the waiting area.”

In the past campaigners expressed grave concern about the shake-up reducing the number of hospital beds in the city and Dr Jean Turner was elected to the Scottish Parliament as an independent candidate amid the protest.

Dr Turner said the planners needed to own up if they had got it wrong, adding: “People’s lives depend on the hospital working operationally from day one.”

Wishaw General is also struggling to hit A&E targets and saw 82 per cent of patients in time and had 30 patients waiting more than eight hours for beds in the week ending June 7.

‘‘ It is taking longer than expected for an improved A&E performance to be achieved