Lives are on the line over missed A&E targets, warns Labour

The Scottish Government has been warned “lives are on the line” due to the failure to tackle long waits in accident and emergency.

Labour issued the warning as the latest weekly figures showed performance against the four-hour, A&E target remained largely unchanged, with a third of patients waiting longer than this to be either admitted, transferred or discharged.

Health Secretary Michael Matheson accepted that “A&E peformance is not where it needs to be”, adding the problem of delayed discharges from hospital was a “major factor” in this.

His comments came as figures from Public Health Scotland showed in the week ending October 8, a total of 16,965 patients in emergency departments – 66.6% – were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

This figure is up very slightly from last week’s, when 66.1% of all attendances were seen within four hours.

It has remained around this level for the past several weeks.

In the latest data, there were 8,520 patients for whom the four-hour target was missed.

Meanwhile, a total of 2,619 patients (10.3%) spent longer than eight hours in an emergency department.

Commenting on the figures, Labour health spokesperson Dame Jackie Baillie said “The chaos in A&E is forcing patients to suffer, leaving staff exhausted and putting lives on the line.

“Services have been stuck in constant crisis for years now, but the SNP’s half-hearted attempts to deal with the problem have failed miserably.”

With Humza Yousaf, the former health secretary who is now First Minister pledging £300 million to reduce NHS waiting lists over the next three years, the Labour MSP added: “After years of turmoil, Humza Yousaf seems to have finally woken up to the crisis he created as Health Secretary – but we need a real strategy to rebuild services and ensure today’s pledge isn’t yet another broken SNP promise.”

Scottish Conservative deputy health spokesperson, Tess White, accused the SNP of presiding “over a crisis in Scotland’s A&E departments”.

The Tory MSP hit out: “These waiting times are utterly unacceptable. It is now the shocking norm on the SNP’s watch that a third of patients will be left waiting beyond four hours to be seen in A&E.

“These unnecessary and harmful delays are the result of dire workforce planning by successive SNP health secretaries and the overwhelming failure of Humza Yousaf’s NHS recovery plan.

“He has a cheek to talk about investing now to try and cut NHS waiting times when it was his inaction that has led doctors to predict this will be the worst winter ever in our NHS.”

She insisted Mr Matheson “needs to get a grip on A&E waiting times before more patients and dedicated staff suffer the terrifying consequences of failing to do so”.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “Seeing these sorts of waiting times at this point is a grim warning for the winter ahead for our NHS.

Mr Matheson said: “A&E performance is not where it needs to be and that is why we’re continuing to work with boards to support the delivery of sustained improvements.”

The Health Secretary added: “Despite a drop in performance for August – good progress has been made in reducing long waits, with waiting times down by 23% compared to the same period last year.

“However, we know the number of long delays remains too high and we are working with boards to reduce these instances.

“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.

“We are also continuing to manage ongoing pressures on acute care by expanding our hospital at home capacity across the country.”