Health Secretary says A&E waiting times performance has ‘stabilised’

Health Secretary Michael Matheson insisted performance against waiting times targets in accident and emergency (A&E) has “stabilised”, although he conceded it was still “not where it needs to be” as figures showed a rise in the number of patients waiting longer than the target time for treatment.

Data for the last week in July showed that of the 25,526 people who attended A&E units, 69% were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

The figures, for the week ending July 30, are down from the 71.8% of patients dealt with within the target time the previous week, and performance continues to be well below the Scottish Government’s aim of having 95% of patients either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

The latest Public Health Scotland statistics showed that 7,924 patients in A&E waited longer than four hours to be dealt with.

This includes 1,898 patients who were there for at least eight hours, and 563 patients who spent a minimum of 12 hours in A&E.

At the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh just over half (51.7%) were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

In contrast at the Western Isles Hospital, 96.7% of patients in A&E were dealt with inside the target time in the week ending July 30.

This meant the health board was the only NHS board area in the country to exceed the target of dealing with 95% of cases in A&E within four hours.

But in the NHS Forth Valley area more than two out of five patients waited longer than the target time, with 56.6% admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

Speaking about the latest figures, Mr Matheson said: “Performance against the four hour target has stabilised. However, we know performance is still not where it needs to be and there is continued disparity in performance both between health boards and individual sites.”

He said the Scottish Government was “working closely with the health boards facing the greatest challenges in A&E, to drive down waiting times and improve services for patients and staff”.

Mr Matheson added: “Hospital bed occupancy continues to be a major factor impacting on performance which is why we are working to reduced instances of delayed discharge and are continuing to expand our Hospital at Home capacity.”