Scotland’s A&E departments show improvement against waiting times targets

Scotland’s accident and emergency departments have achieved their best performance against waiting time targets since May last year – with the latest weekly figures showing seven out of 10 patients were seen within the target time.

NHS data for the week ending January 22 showed that of the 21,527 people who attended emergency departments across the country, 70.1% were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged.

The total is still well below the Scottish Government target of having 95% of cases in A&E dealt with within four hours.

But it is the highest proportion of patients treated within the target time since the week ending May 22 2022 – eight months ago.

And in the midst of what ministers have described as the toughest winter ever for the NHS, performance fell to a record low of 55.1% against the target in the week ending December 18.

Public Health Scotland statistics showed that 6,435 people spend four hours or more in A&E in the week ending January 22 – down from 7,423 the previous week and from a high of 11,493 in mid-December.

The latest data also showed 2,331 patients in A&E for eight hours or more, down from 3,015 the previous week – while the number spending half a day or more there dropped from 1,504 to 1,031.

However two hospitals treated fewer than half of A&E patients within the four hour target – with just 40.1% of patients seen within this time at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, and 45.9% of patients at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said he was “encouraged to see improvements in our weekly performance” – noting that although the number attending at A&E had increased, the number of patients with long waits had gone down.

He stated: “Waits of over eight hours have gone down by around 53% since the recent peak over the holiday period, with 12-hour waits decreasing by 59%.

“Performance over four hours is the best we have seen since last May, this is welcome and recent progress is a testament to the exceptional efforts of NHS staff.”

Mr Yousaf continued: “We are doing everything we can to help the health service through the remainder of the most challenging winter in its history.

“We are providing £8 million to Boards to utilise 300 new care beds to increase capacity and alleviate delayed discharge pressures and will increase NHS24 staffing to help cope with rises in demand.

“As part of our nationwide approach on delayed discharge, patients who no longer need to be in hospital will be urgently reassessed and those clinically safe to be discharged will be safely moved home or to an interim placement in a care home – freeing up beds for those most in need.”

Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said while the latest figures were “an improvement on the dismal winter A&E stats”, she added that “the fact remains that our NHS is in crisis with thousands waiting too long for treatment”.

Ms Baillie said this meant that “patient and staff wellbeing is still at risk, lives are being lost and delayed discharge is at breaking point”.

She added: “The SNP must end delayed discharge, which causes capacity problems with a lack of available beds, and stop this crisis once and for all.

“They must also invest further in primary care and tackle illnesses before they get serious. Health inequalities are widening under the SNP’s watch, and they must tackle this issue head-on.”

Similarly, Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane insisted that the Health Secretary should “not get ahead of himself”.

The Conservative MSP said: “Any improvement in A&E waiting times is of course welcome for long-suffering patients and my burnt out colleagues on the frontline.

“It is down to their dedication that figures finally appear to be heading in the right direction.

“However, Humza Yousaf should not get ahead of himself. Our NHS remains in a critical state on his watch.”

Dr Gulhane said: “Humza Yousaf’s flimsy recovery plans have failed to remobilise our NHS and have led to him being a record-breaker for all the wrong reasons.

“He cannot be complacent about this upturn in A&E and must show proper leadership to support patients and staff as we emerge from the winter period.”