More than a third of patients waiting four hours at A&E ‘the norm’, Tories say

More than a third of patients waiting at least four hours to be seen at A&E is “now the shocking norm”, the Scottish Tories have claimed – despite a slight decline in lengthy waits.

In the week ending March 10, 17,034 of emergency department attendances were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within the four-hour target.

That is the equivalent of 65.2% of the total 26,112 unplanned A&E attendances last week – compared with 65.3% or 26,055 in the week ending March 3.

And 11.3% – or 2,943 patients – spent more than eight hours waiting to be seen, compared with 3,058 (11.7%) the previous week.

The figures, published by Public Health Scotland, also showed 1,138 (4.4%) patients spent more than 12 hours in A&E – down from 4.6% or 1,209 patients the previous week.

But despite the slight improvements, Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the delays are leading to “needless deaths”.

He said: “Scotland’s A&E departments remain in permanent crisis on the SNP’s watch. It is now the shocking norm that over a third of patients have to wait four hours to be seen at A&E.

“We are well beyond the peak winter period, but there still remains no sign of improvement.

“The blame lies firmly with the SNP whose dire workforce planning has left our frontline services dangerously overstretched and understaffed.”

Dr Gulhane, who is also a GP, added: “Despite the best efforts of my dedicated colleagues on the front line, we know these excessive delays – with over 1,100 patients waiting half a day this week again – lead to needless deaths.

“Neil Gray must take urgent action to address this crisis and he should start by adopting our proposals in our health paper which would deliver a modern, efficient and local health service.”

The Scottish Government has a target to see 95% of patients within four hours.

It has not been met since the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “We know that the system remains under sustained pressure, and waiting times are longer than we want them to be for too many patients.

“Despite this, weekly statistics show continued improvement in A&E performance in recent weeks and additional pressures brought on by seasonal illness appear to be easing.

“We recognise that long delays remain too high and we continue to work with health boards to reduce these instances.

“A&E performance is impacted by pressures from across the wider health and social care system which is why our Unscheduled Care Collaborative Programme is taking a whole system approach as we work with health boards to deliver sustained improvement.”