Ward wait times improve but target still elusive

WAITING times at Scotland’s accident and emergency departments have improved slightly but are still falling below a key government target.

The latest figures show that in February 121,676 people attended A&E with 90.3 per cent either admitted, transferred or discharged in four hours.

That is an improvement from 87.2% in January but down from 92.5% in the same month last year, and below the government target of 95%. A total of 1,210 patients spent more than eight hours in A&E while 262 people waited for more than 12 hours.

Separately, the latest weekly figures show 88.3% of A&E patients were seen within the target time in the seven days to March 25.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “Scotland’s core A&ES have now been the best performing in the UK for three years. More than nine out of 10 patients were treated or admitted within four hours in February and it’s also encouraging to see statistics begin to recover following a challenging winter.”

Meanwhile, bed blocking in Scotland’s hospitals fell by 10% over a year.

A total of 1,297 people were delayed leaving hospital despite being well enough to be discharged, down 10% compared with the 1,439 people delayed in February 2017.