Over 200 deaths this year ‘due to long waiting times at A&E’

Some 231 patients have died in Scotland this year as a direct result of “unconscionable” long waits at A&E, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has said.

It comes as new figures from Public Health Scotland show weekly A&E waiting times have hit another worst performance on record, with the percentage of patients seen within four hours dropping below 70 for the first time.

Separate figures also published on Tuesday showed a deterioration in performance forthefifthconsecutivemonth.

Dr John Thomson, Vice President of the Royal College of Emergencymedicinescotland, labelled this “seriously worrying”.

"What we are seeing: ambulance handover delays; dangerous crowding; long stays... put patient safety at risk and can lead to harm or avoidable deaths,” he said.

"Data show that for every 67 patientswaiting8-12hours,one of them will come to avoidable harm – in Scotland between January and August 2021 there have been 231 excess deaths directly caused by a long wait due to a crowded Emergency Department.

“These are unconscionable practices and both ambulance crews and Emergency Medicine staff are under pressure to resolve the problem – together with the College of Paramedics we laid out this guidance.

"The problem is poor flow throughout the hospital and exit block, this will not be resolved in the Emergency Department,itisasystem-wide problem and requires systemwide solutions and collaboration.”

Emergency departments in Scotland are preparing for a “gruelling” winter, Dr Thomson said.

Hiscommentscameasweekly report from Public Health Scotland showed that in the week to October, 24, just 69.6 per cent of patients were seen and admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

Thescottishgovernmenttarget is 95 per cent.

Some 1948 people waited for more than eight hours, the highest number since records began in 2015.

Thenumberofpeoplewaiting over 12 hours was also a record high, at 630.

Opposition politicians said the figures were symptomatic of the current crisis in the NHS.

Scottish Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Dr Sandeshgulhanecalledthema“devastating”indictmentofhumza Yousaf’s stewardship of the health service.