Health Secretary is forced to back down over A&E f igures
SHONA Robison was forced into a humiliating climbdown yesterday after being caught spinning accident and emergency waiting times performances.
The Health Secretary claimed 13 out of 14 health boards were hitting the SNP’s four-hour target, when the true figure is ten.
The real results should have provided welcome respite for Miss Robison, who has endured a torrid time in recent months, with waiting times failures a running sore, along with closure of units and services due to staff shortages.
NHS Scotland is finally hitting the new, reduced, target of 95 per cent of
‘SNP up to old tricks of spin’
A&E patients seen within four hours, even if four of the biggest health boards – Ayrshire and Arran, Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and Lothian – are still falling short.
But Miss Robison’s desperation to make the results appear better than they are resulted in an own goal.
She put out a statement at 9.43am, saying: ‘NHS staff have been working extremely hard to cut waiting times and deliver a first-class service, and the figures published are testament to this.
‘It is also good to see that every health board in Scotland treated nine out of ten people within four hours, with 13 reaching 95 per cent. In addition, long waits continue to remain low.’
However, when opponents checked NHS Scotland’s Independent Services Division statistics they found this was not the case.
Scottish Lib Dem health spokesman Jim Hume said: ‘The SNP Government must correct the record for what is simply a wrong and misleading claim. It seems they have been up to their old tricks of putting spin before substance.
‘This isn’t fair on patients or on NHS staff. That it has taken 100 weeks to achieve this interim target demonstrates the scale of the problems faced by many hard-pressed health boards.’
In response, two and a half hours after her initial statement, Miss Robison authorised a correction.
But rather than admit the error, she simply inserted the word ‘around’ in an attempt to gloss over the fact that more health boards were missing the target than she had claimed.
Mr Hume added: ‘Only in “Natspeak” is missing the target the same as meeting the target.
‘Why can’t they just admit they’re at it and give patients the honest facts they deserve?’
Last week, it emerged stroke waiting time targets are being missed by a huge margin, following similar failures on cancer and bed blocking, with 408 patients trapped for more than a fortnight in their hospital bed in May alone.
The NHS is facing a staffing crisis and is being forced to employ expensive agency nurses and doctors.
Miss Robison faced criticism earlier this month when she failed to guarantee the future of the children’s ward at St John’s Hospital, in Livingston, West Lothian, and Perth Royal Infirmary’s out-of-hours GP service,
‘Patients deserve honest facts’
both of which have had to close their doors temporarily because of staffing problems.
The Scottish Government has been criticised for failing to pass on Barnet consequentials resulting from increases in health spending which have been made south of the Border.
Earlier this year, government accounts showed spending on health services increased by 1.5 per cent to £11.465billion in Scotland in 2013-14. However, in the rest of the UK it soared by 4.2 per cent.
Yesterday, MSPs welcomed the improvements in A&E waiting times.
Scottish Tory health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: ‘This is welcome news and Scottish Conservatives congratulate all those who worked hard to make it possible.
‘However, as we all know, one swallow does not make a summer and it would be hugely complacent to think that all must now be well when f i gures improve in a week while many may be away on holiday.
‘Good news certainly, but so much more still to do.’
Nationalist MSP Bob Doris added: ‘These figures are very welcome, showing that A&E units are meeting the 95 per cent target.
‘They are a tribute to the work of NHS staff who have been working hard to cut waiting times and deliver the best possible service for patients.’