A&E units miss out on key waiting-times target
GLASGOW’S flagship hospital recorded an improvement waiting times after recording its worst performance the previous week.
The performance of Scotland’s main emergency departments showed a slight improvement, according to new weekly figures, but still fell below a key waitingtimes target.
A total of 90.1% of people were seen, admitted and transferred or discharged within four hours during the week ending January 15.
The figure is an improvement on the previous week, when 87.9% of the 25,066 attendances at emer- gency departments were dealt within the time frame.
Scotland’s newest hospital, the £842million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, saw 76.1% of patients within the fourhour target time, after recording its worst performance the previous week of 74.8%.
A&E departments still fell short of the Scottish Government’s target for at least 95% of patients to be seen within four hours.
There were 22,717 attendances at A&E during the week ending January 15, with a further breakdown of the figures showing that 351 spent more than eight hours there. A total of 104 patients spent more than 12 hours in an emergency department compared to 101 the previous week.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “While there was a slight improvement in A&E waiting times, it is worth remembering this follows the worst week since March 2015.
“Last week 351 people still waited over eight hours to be seen and there was an increase in the number of people waiting over 12 hours at emergency departments.”
Health Secretary Shona Robison welcomed the improvement in performance. Commenting on the figure for the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Ms Robison said she expected NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to address this “as a priority”.
“We have provided the health board with £3.1m of additional unscheduled care and winter funding this year and are also working closely with staff at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to put in place measures on the ground that will help the hospital to manage the additional patient demand,” she said.