A&E departments ‘stabilising’ insists new Health Secretary
Scotland’s struggling accident and emergency departments are showing “some signs of stabilisation” in recent weeks, new Health Secretary Neil Gray has said.
He spoke as the latest weekly figures showed some improvement in A&E waiting times, with 63.5 per cent of all patients seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours. The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh achieved this for just 48.9 per cent of patients.
The overall number was up from 62.8 per cent the previous week – but continues to be significantly below the Scottish Government target of 95 per cent.
The latest Public Health Scotland data, for the week ending February 4, showed that of the 25,212 people who went to A&E for medical help, 15,999 were admitted, transferred or discharged within the fourhour target time. There were 9,213 patients who waited longer than that – down from 9,421 the previous week.
Meanwhile, 3,482 patients spent eight hours or more in A&E in the week ending
February 4 – with 1,483 there for more than 12 hours. Both these totals, however, were lower than the previous week.
Mr Gray, who took over as Health Secretary last Thursday in a reshuffle prompted by the resignation of Michael Matheson, said while waiting times were “longer than we want them to be for some patients” he hoped there would be some easing of the pressure in “weeks to come”.
The Health Secretary said: “We recognise that the system remains under sustained pressure, and waiting times are longer than we want them to be for some patients. Despite this, there are some signs of stabilisation across the system in recent weeks, and we hope to see pressure easing in weeks to come.”
Mr Gray said A&E was “impacted by pressures from across the wider health and social care system”, with difficulties discharging patients from other parts of hospitals often affecting A&E waits. Scottish Labour health spokesperson Dame Jackie Baillie said: “We might have a new health minister but it is clear that we have the same old chaos in our A&E departments. While staff work tirelessly to save lives, the SNP has indulged in a revolving-door policy with health secretaries leaving post long before they got to grips with the crisis.”