‘Our patients and staff deserve better’
MSP hits out at latest A&E waiting time figures
Hundreds of people from Rutherglen and Cambuslang are being forced to wait more than four hours to receive treatment at accident and emergency departments.
Figures released this week show that in 2018, 42,834 people waited more than four hours to be seen by doctors at A&E in Glasgow – where many Ruglonians are treated.
This represents an increase of 11.7 per cent in the past year.
And in the Lanarkshire health board area, 18,908 people waited for more than four hours, a hike of 8.7 per cent on 2017.
The Scottish Government states that 95 per cent of all A&E patients should be admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours of arrival at an A&E department.
However, few health boards are meeting that target.
In the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, which includes the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, 3,394 people waited more than eight hours in 2018, a rise of 23 per cent on the previous year.
A further 303 people waited more than 12 hours, a hike of 20 per cent.
In Lanarkshire, where Rutherglen and Cambuslang residents are treated at Hairmyres Hospital, 1,916 people waited more than four hours for medical attention.
This, however, is a marked improvement on 2017, with an 11 per cent reduction. James Kelly, list MSP for Glasgow, who lives in Rutherglen, said: “Patients and staff deserve better than this.
“Scottish Labour has been concerned about the pressures on NHS GGC and NHS Lanarkshire for some time and these staggering figures expose the scale of the challenge NHS staff face in delivering patient care and how badly they have been let down by years of SNP mismanagement of our NHS.
“A&E is the front door of the hospital, and the pulse check of our NHS as a whole.
“Increasing numbers of people waiting too long at A&E reveals unacceptable pressure in other parts of our health service such as in social care and primary care.
“We already know that staff do not feel they are getting enough support and that the level of unfilled health posts is unsustainable.
“Health ministers set the health service targets for staff to hit and then do not deliver the support and resources needed. It simply isn’t good enough.”
However, Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman was optimistic about the figures and said: “I want to thank all the health and social care staff who worked with dedication and commitment over the festive period.
“Scotland’s core A&Es have now been the best performing in the UK for more than three and a half years, and the latest weekly figures – published last week – show that almost nine out of ten people were seen and treated within four hours.
“This is testament to the hard work and dedication of our NHS staff, and comes despite the fact that core attendances to A&E departments in the year to November 2018 were the highest in any equivalent period since 2011.
“Where performance needs to improve, we continue to support health boards in those efforts.
“This winter the Scottish Government has invested an additional £10 million to help services prepare for winter.
“This was on top of £9m already allocated to support unscheduled care all year round.”