Scotland’s new first minister is being urged to make tackling long waits in accident and emergency a priority – as figures showed more than a third of patients waited longer than the the target time in the first full week in March.
With the latest data from Public Health Scotland showing only 64.7% of patients in A&E were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours in the week ending March 12, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton made a plea to the three candidates running to replace Nicola Sturgeon.
The Lib Dem said: “As the SNP leadership race comes to a close it is clear the ongoing crisis in Scotland’s NHS will have to be at the top of the new first minister’s in tray.”
A&E departments dealt with 24,523 cases in the week ending March 12 , with performance against the waitimg time target down from the 69% recorded the previous week.
It also continues to be well below the Scottish Government ambition of having 95% of cases in A&E dealt with within four hours.
The latest data from Public Health Scotland showed that 8,656 patients were in A&E for more than four hours – up from 7,429 the previous week.
There were also 2,585 people who spent eight hours or more in A&E, including 1,030 who were there for a minimum of 12 hours – with these totals up from 2,300 and 916 in the week ending March 5.
The data for the week ending March 12 also showed three hospitals where more than half of patients waited longer than the four-hour target time in A&E: with 42.2% of patients dealt within within this time at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh; as well as 44.5% of patients at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert; and 44.6% at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, who is one of the three candidates hoping to succeed Ms Sturgeon as SNP leader and Scottish first minister, stressed there would be fluctuations in the weekly data.
He said: “We are doing everything we can to support the health service through the remainder of the most challenging winter in its history.”
But Mr Cole-Hamilton complained: “Patients wait for hours on end week after week, all the while the candidates to be our new first minister squabble over independence plans.”
Scottish Conservative health spokesman, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, branded the figures as being a “damning indictment on Humza Yousaf”, insisting that the current Health Secretary is “more focused on his leadership ambitions than his day job”.
The Tory MSP said: “These desperate figures give lie to the theory that Scotland’s A&E wards are recovering from the peak winter pressures on the NHS.
“We’re into spring and yet waiting times have got sharply worse from an already unacceptable position – meaning that even more lives will be needlessly lost.”
Mr Yousaf said: “While A&E performance has improved since the start of the year, pressure on services remains high and we will continue to see fluctuations in figures from week to week.
“There continues to be pressure across our health and social care system that is impacting on performance and I would like to thank all NHS staff for their continued exceptional efforts in the face of this pressure.
“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.”
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