Not good enough
another two and a half years of a man with no plan telling us our NHS is okay.
“Gray must come to the table with a credible plan to reverse the deterioration of our NHS service.”
The news comes in the same week as statistics confirm January waiting times in Scottish A&E departments, including the RAH, are the worst on record.
On average, 228 people at the RAH waited in excess of eight hours to receive treatment in the first four weeks of the year.
In the week ending Sunday, January 7, 114 people waited more than 12 hours – half a day – to receive treatment.
Dr JP Loughrey, royal college of emergency medicine vice-president for Scotland, said: “This latest data makes for grim reading, and it is incredibly demoralising for my colleagues to be working under such strenuous circumstances.
“They are working all out to put patients first whilst also having to carry the burden of working in an underfunded, overcrowded, and at times unsafe emergency care system.
“We need intervention from the government and policy makers to ensure we never reach this nadir again.”
A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “As is the case throughout the country, all our services have been under considerable pressure this winter.
“We would like to apologise to anyone who has had to wait longer than they would have expected.
“All our staff are working extremely hard to address these challenges, and we would like to thank them for their continued professionalism and commitment.”
The Scottish Government, meanwhile, said it was working to improve capacity in health and social care by tackling delayed discharge and improving patient flow throughout the system.
A spokesperson said: “We know that long delays remain too high and we continue to work with boards to reduce these instances, which are not unique to Scotland.
“Hospital bed occupancy continues to be a major factor impacting on performance.
“To address this, the delayed discharge and hospital occupancy action plan is being implemented at pace, delivering actions we know work to ensure patients receive the right care in the right setting.”
Our overstretched NHS workforce and patients who require A&E cannot afford more years of a man with no plan telling us our NHS is okay