A&Eadmissionssurge as cold weather bites
EMERGENCY staff at Hairmryres Hospital in Lanarkshire dealt with one week’s worth of ice-related accidents in a day as temperatures plunged.
A&E units struggled to meet a waiting time target amid a surge in demand in the run-up to Christmas.
The latest figures for the week ending December 17 show that 81.1% of patients were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, falling significantly short of the Scottish Government’s 95% target.
The figure represents a drop from 86.9% the previous week, and is down from 90.2% in the same week last year.
Much of the rise in demand came towards the end of the week.
Raigmore Hospital in Inverness and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary saw a 48% and 42% increase respectively in attendances between Thursday December 14 and Sunday 17 compared with the same few days in the previous week.
The Scottish Ambulance Service also recorded a 40% increase in calls to deal with trauma injuries during the week ending December 17 and, and over the weekend of December 16 and 17, a 60% increase in calls related to falls.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde announced last week that a casualty unit was to re-open in the west of Glasgow to strengthen the city’s emergency services.
The minor injuries unit will be admitting patients from January 3 at the West Ambulatory Care Hospital.
Statistics show there were 29,054 attendances at emergency departments across Scotland during the week - the highest number since weekly reporting began in 2015.
Attendances were up 12% on the previous week, and up 15% on the same week last year, with much of the increase attributed to weather-related slips and trips and seasonal illness.
David Chung, vice president of Royal College of Emergency Med- icine (RCEM) Scotland said: “We have seen exceptional numbers of patients in the week before Christmas, which will undoubtedly affect how we are able to work through the festive period as well.”
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said figures for NHS Lothian, where 68.7% of patients were seen within four hours, were “especially concerning”.