Waiting times still real issue

Hundreds of patients have been left waiting for more than four hours in NHS Lanarkshire’s three hospitals.

Of 4013 patients, just 63.8 per cent were seen within government target times on weeks ending May 8 and 15.

That is a massive 31 per cent below the Scottish Government average of 95 per cent.

There was also a large discrepancy in the figures in each of the hospitals.

At Wishaw General, the number of patients seen was just 54.6 per cent, for the week ending May 8, and 54.9 per cent for May 15.

At Hairmyres in East Kilbride, the stats were 58 per cent and 61.2 per cent respectively.

However, at Monklands the figures were better, with 77.6 per cent and 76.4 per cent of patients seen within the four hour window on those weeks.

Conservative Central Scotland list MSP, Meghan Gallacher, said with summer around the corner and Covid rates continuing to fall, it is completely unacceptable that so many patients are facing excessive A&E waiting times in NHS Lanarkshire.

She told us: “A&E waiting times in NHS Lanarkshire are still atrocious.

“Far too many patients are continuing to suffer excessive waits in A& E, which will ultimately lead to yet more unnecessary deaths.

“The SNP have missed their A& E waiting times target week after week, month after month, but we still see little in the way of action from the Health Secretary.

“Humza Yousaf needs to finally accept his flimsy NHS Recovery plan simply isn’t working for NHS Lanarkshire.

“He must urgently and belatedly come up with a new strategy in order to ensure A& E waiting times dramatically improve.”

Ms Gallacher’s call comes after only 70.2 per cent of patients across Scotland were seen within four hours of arriving at A&E.

The Public Health Scotland figures showed some 8040 people waited longer than four hours, including 2076 who had to wait more than eight hours, and 626 who waited more than 12 hours for the week ending May 15.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “We know the situation may fluctuate as hospitals manage pandemic-related challenges and backlogs, but we expect the pressure in A&E to ease as Covid cases continue to decrease.

“Scotland continues to have the best performing A&Es in the UK, outperforming those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for over six years.”