Health board hit by worst waiting times

The Scottish Government has intervened to help struggling NHS Lothian cope with its under pressure emergency departments.

More than 4,000 patients across the Lothians were forced to wait more than four hours to be seen at A&E during one week this month – with more than a third of patients turning up at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh not being seen within the targeted time frame.

The figures mean the health board has recorded the worst performance for A&E waiting times across the whole country since the publication of weekly figures began nearly three years ago.

NHS Lothian also has the worst rates for patients waiting for cancer diagnostic tests and delayed discharge across Scotland.

The health board is buckling under pressure brought about by the winter weather with outbreaks of flu, respiratory illness and people falling in icy conditions adding to their problems.

In the latest weekly figures, just 77.3 per cent of patients in NHS Lothian were dealt with within the four-hour target. The flagship Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh was the worst performing of all Scottish emergency departments, with just 64.1 per cent of patients being seen within the fourhour target.

More than half of patients (54 out of 107) in Scotland waiting for more than 12 hours in A&E were in NHS Lothian.

This comes on the back of an internal audit into NHS Lothian drawing up local guidelines on how waiting times should be recorded because staff found the national guidance 0 Shona Robison: Helping NHS Lothian find solutions was “vague and ambiguous”.

As a result, patients waiting longer than the four hour Scottish Government target was under-reported in all of NHS Lothian’s emergency departments. Before the misreporting came to light in October the health board had been meeting the government’s target of 95 per cent.

Last month it was reported that nearly one in three patients in NHS Lothian are waiting longer than the six weeks target for key diagnostic tests, including those to detect cancer. The Lothians figures are the worst in Scotland – with the national average for the quarter ending 30 September being 81.6 per cent of patients being seen.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “We are working with NHS Lothian to help identify and provide solutions to improve flow through the hospital, which will boost its performance and improve waiting times for patients.”

Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs, said: “These waiting times are particularly bad and patients in Lothians will be worried about the delays they face should they need emergency care over Christmas.”