Improvements in our region as A&E performance in Scotland hits record lows

Accident and Emergency waiting times are up across Scotland. Credit: ITV

Accident and emergency waiting times in Scotland have hit their worst level on record once more, with just 70.9 per cent of patients seen in four hours.

With 24,116 patients seeking treatment at A&E departments in the week ending October 17, it is the lowest attendance figure since the first week of May - 23 weeks ago.

Yet the percentage of patients seen, admitted, transferred or discharged within the four-hour target has fallen to another record low of 70.9 per cent.

Both of the health boards in our region though are bucking this downward trend.

NHS Borders attended to 82.4 per cent of its 522 patients A&E patients in this time, compared to 70.8 per cent of the 541 it saw the week before. This news comes after military personnel began working with the board.

In Dumfries and Galloway, 81.4 per cent of the 751 emergency patients seen were treated in time compared to 77.2 per cent of 806 the week before.

The latest figures published by Public Health Scotland reveal that 7,012 patients across Scotland waited longer than four hours.

Of those, 1,786 waited for more than eight hours and 515 were still waiting after 12 hours.

It is the seventh time in 11 weeks that compliance with the Scottish Government's target has declined to its worst ever level.

Soldiers are working with NHS Borders. Credit: ITV Border

NHS Forth Valley - which is responsible for the 12 worst weekly performances recorded by any Scottish health board - was again the worst-performing region, with more than half of patients 53.1 per cent waiting longer than the four-hour target.

It is a slight improvement on last week's record low of 41 per cent of patients, although 162 of the 1,159 patients 14 per cent waited more than eight hours and 20 patients 1.7 per cent waited longer than 12 hours.

NHS Lanarkshire, which moved to its highest alert level of "black" last week after reaching maximum capacity and cancelled cancer procedures, saw just 62.1 per cent within four hours.

Only Scotland's island health boards - NHS Western Isles, NHS Shetland and NHS Orkney - met the waiting time target of 95 per cent of patients seen within four hours, with performances of 98.4 per cent, 97.4 per cent and 95.7 per cent respectively.

Following last week's figure of 71.3 per cent of A&E patients being dealt with in the target time, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf told the PA news agency:  "I absolutely regret that anybody doesn't receive the standard of service that we'd expect.

Responding to the latest statistics, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "These figures show that our NHS is genuinely in jeopardy. The SNP have sucked the life out of our public services.

"Record-breaking waiting times might have been normalised by the SNP, but these numbers aren't trivial. They show people who need critical healthcare services being put at risk. It's a true scandal.

"The Health Secretary cannot expect to muddle on and for the Army to bail him out. If staff are to be convinced to stay, we need to see long-term options on the table including an honest workforce management plan and a revised NHS Recovery Plan.

"In the meantime, the Health Secretary should spend a shift on the front line so that he has a proper grip of the scale of problems faced."

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: "These latest figures are deeply concerning and further evidence of the crisis in Scotland's A&E wards.

"More than 50,000 patients have now waited beyond the SNP's own target time since Humza Yousaf's recovery plan was published and with each passing week the stats are getting worse.

"Scotland's NHS is toiling on Humza Yousaf's watch and his flimsy Covid recovery plan isn't cutting it.

Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: "Another week goes by, with another record failure from the SNP. Make no mistake, the people of Scotland are being put in danger due to the SNP's catastrophic failure to support A&E services.

"Staff are doing the best they can, but lives are on the line as the Health Secretary's current strategy is clearly not dealing whatsoever with this crisis. If action is not taken now, we risk a winter of chaos in A&E departments across Scotland.

A Scottish Government spokesman said the "direct and indirect impacts of the Covid pandemic have inevitably affected A&E performance".

"We recognise that some people aren't getting the service of care they, or we, would expect and we apologise to anyone who has suffered as a result.

He added: "To minimise pressures as much as possible, we've recently announced £300m of measures to help increase NHS and social care capacity and reduce delayed discharges which will ensure additional capacity for emergency admissions."

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