Number of patients waiting 12 hours or more in A&E falls for third week
The number of patients waiting 12 hours or longer to be seen in Scottish emergency departments has fallen for the third consecutive week.
Public Health Scotland figures for the week up to June 4 shows there were 640 patients spending more than 12 hours in accident and emergency (A&E) wards.
With a total of 26,893 attendances during the latest week, the longest metric is the equivalent to 2.4% of all patients.
It is a decrease from the previous week, where 691 patients waited longer than 12 hours.
However, the Scottish Government’s target to see and subsequently admit, transfer or discharge 95% of patients within four hours has not been met since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The latest data shows 18,618, or 69.2%, of all admissions met this aim, which is an increase from the 68.6% from the week ending May 28.
Meanwhile, 2,028 patients (7.5%) spent more than eight hours in an emergency department.
Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie, however, has warned that “lives are still on the line” despite the improvements.
She added: “NHS workers are going above and beyond to keep patients safe, but they are stretched to breaking point.
“Chaos has become the new normal for these services, and NHS patients and staff are both paying the price.
“The Health Secretary must get a grip and fix the mess he inherited from Humza Yousaf by supporting the workforce and tackling delayed discharge before any more damage is done.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “While performance continues to fluctuate as we work towards recovery, we are encouraged by these latest statistics which show performance moving in the right direction, with fewer patients waiting more than four hours to be seen.
“We welcome the significant reduction in the number of patients experiencing long waits within our emergency departments, with the longest delays down for the third week running and 45% down compared to four weeks ago.
“However, we know that performance is not where it needs to be and we continue to work closely with the health boards facing the greatest challenges in A&E, to drive down waiting times and improve services for patients and staff.”