Scottish Tories condemn latest ‘woeful’ A&E waiting times statistics

More than a third of patients in accident and emergency waited longer than the Scottish Government’s target time for treatment, new figures for the final week of February showed.

Of the 24,279 cases dealt with by A&E staff in the week ending February 26, 64.5% were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within fours hours.

This was up very slightly from last week’s figures, which showed 64.4% of patients were treated inside the target time – but continues to be well below the Scottish Government target of having 95% of patients dealt with within four hours.

The latest Public Health Scotland data showed that 8,629 people spent more than four hours in A&E in the week ending February 26 – with this including 2,983 who were there for eight hours or more.

There were 1,275 patients in the emergency department for 12 hours or more.

At Edinburgh Royal Infirmary 41.4% of patients in A&E were dealt with within the target time – with the flagship Queen Elizabeth University Hospital seeing 41.5% of patients inside four hours.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said that the latest “woeful figures show there is no sign of improvement in Scotland’s A&E performance, despite the NHS winter peak being behind us”.

The Tory MSP added: “The tragic reality is that lives continue to be needlessly lost because of excess delays – and that’s why the rise in patients waiting more than 12 hours is so terrifying and unacceptable.

“We can never accept a scenario where more than a third of patients are failing to be seen within the Scottish Government’s four-hour target – but that’s become the norm under Humza Yousaf’s disastrous tenure as Health Secretary.”

Dr Gulhane, who has continued to work as a GP after being elected to Holyrood, continued: “These appalling stats are no reflection on dedicated NHS frontline staff, who have been stretched beyond breaking point by years of dreadful SNP workforce planning and recovery plans that aren’t fit for purpose.”

However, monthly figures for January showed some improvement after December’s worst-ever performance.

In the final month of 2022, A&E departments dealt with 62.1% of patients within the four-hour target time – but the data for the first month of 2023 showed this had risen to 68.7%.

Of the 114,103 cases handled over the month, a total of 13,751 (12.5% of patients) spent more than eight hours in A&E, while 6,668 (6.1%) were there for half a day or more.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf stressed that ministers are “doing everything we can to support the health service through the remainder of the most challenging winter in its history”.

Thanking NHS staff for their “continued exceptional efforts in the face of sustained pressure”, Mr Yousaf said that “while A&E performance has improved since the start of the year, pressure on services remains high”.

He added: “We will continue to see fluctuations in figures from week to week and month to month, but we remain determined to improve A&E performance.”

The Health Secretary, who is running to replace Nicola Sturgeon as Scottish first minister, continued: “There continues to be pressure across our health and social care system that is impacting on performance.

“We are increasing NHS 24 staffing to help cope with increased demand and are providing up to £8 million to boards to help alleviate pressure from delayed discharge.

“As part of our nationwide approach, patients who no longer need to be in hospital are being 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.”