THE DAY-LONG WAIT IN A&E

Patients left for up to 22 hours in Scots casualty departments

PATIENTS have been forced to wait for nearly 24 hours in A&E after arriving at crisis-hit Scottish hospitals.

An alarming snapshot of waiting times shows that some have been stuck for almost an entire day and night in casualty units.

Even before winter weather hit, one patient had to wait 22 hours and 13 minutes for a bed at Wishaw General.

The health board responsible for the hospital, NHS Lanarkshire, also revealed that a dozen vulnerable patients over the age of 80 were kept waiting for more than 12 hours.

Raigmore Hospital in Inverness kept three pensioners in casualty for more than 14 hours – and one for more than 16 – at the start of the winter.

In Fife a patient waited almost 13 hours, while NHS Grampian and NHS Forth Valley saw people waiting a maximum of almost 12 hours and 11-and-a-half respectively during the period from September to the first week of December, 2015.

There are fears that waiting times will become even longer this month as a result of increasingly cold, wintry conditions.

Scotland Patients Association spokesman Dr Jean Turner said long waits for very ill people can be ‘terrifying’.

She added: ‘We know of occasions where people have been shunted off somewhere out of sight and out of mind because a bed cannot be found quickly. We know of

people who have been left lying in corridors on trolleys. But if someone is left lying for nearly 24 hours, the service isn’t working.’

The Scottish Daily Mail uncovered the figures for A&E waiting times through Freedom of Information requests.

The worst case involved a patient left for more than 22 hours in the week beginning October 5 last year at Wishaw General.

The hospital also kept one person in A&E for more than 21 hours and another for 20 hours and 58 minutes only three weeks later – although officials insist the hospital now has more senior doctors in post.

In early September, Wishaw General’s A&E unit was short of two consultants and one more had resigned. It was also lacking four senior clinical decision-makers. The department had to rely on an extra junior doctor for cover, with senior doctors working long hours of overtime to keep it running.

Local Labour MSP John Pentland has called for an independent review of NHS Lanarkshire’s performance. He said: ‘The Scottish Government and the health board need to stop pretending everything is OK when manifestly it is not.’

The latest figures on A&E waiting times show an improvement, with almost 92 per cent of patients seen within four hours at Wishaw General in the week to January 3.

NHS Lanarkshire spokesman Dr Jane Burns said: ‘We regret any occasion where a patient experiences a lengthy wait. When this occurs, care is provided in a bed within an appropriate clinical area with access to toilet facilities and meals where appropriate.’

She said extra senior doctors had been recruited in recent months.

At Raigmore Hospital, one patient over the age of 65 was forced to wait 16 hours and 22 minutes to be found a bed or sent home.

The longest waiting time recorded in NHS Borders was nine hours and 31 minutes.

NHS Lothian recorded at least eight people waiting more than 12 hours. NHS Tayside and NHS Orkney did not have any waits of more than 12 hours, while patients in the Western Isles, Shetland and Dumfries and Galloway waited no longer than eight hours.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran missed the statutory deadline to respond, and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has not yet been able to provide the relevant information.

NHS Fife said only 0.03 per cent of patients waited longer than 12 hours. A spokesman said: ‘We continue to experience a rise in the numbers of those requiring hospital admission. This has increased pressure on our services, and on rare occasions has led to a very small number of patients waiting in excess of 12 hours.’

NHS Forth Valley said the vast majority of patients were seen within four hours. It added: ‘Where appropriate, patients can undergo tests and start treatment while they are being cared for in A&E.’

A spokesman for NHS Grampian said it had more than 138,000 emergency attendances a year, with patients prioritised accord- ing to their condition. He added: ‘It is important to note that the Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates around 15 per cent of attendances at Scottish emergency departments could be managed by GPs or other NHS services.’

NHS Highland said three patients were delayed for more than 14 hours on a very busy week. A spokesman said: ‘Although the patients were in the emergency department, their care was equivalent to that of patients on the ward.’

Health Secretary Shona Robison said A&E units would receive an extra £10.7million to help ease winter pressures and added: ‘We are clear with boards that unnecessary delays in A&E are not acceptable.

‘Scotland’s A&E departments are consistently performing better than last year. The number of patients spending 12 hours in A&E has been dramatically cut by more than three quarters over the last ten weeks compared to the same period last year.’