Mixed picture in our region as A&E performance in Scotland hits record lows
Scotland has recorded yet another record bad week of accident and emergency performance, with just 69.4 per cent of patients being seen within four hours.
In our region though, both NHS Borders and NHS Dumfries and Galloway have performance records better than the national average but still below the Scottish Government's target.
NHS Scotland figures reveal that 7,425 patients (30.4 per cent) waited longer than four hours to be seen, admitted, transferred or discharged in the week ending 24 October.
It is the first time compliance with the Scottish Government target of patients being seen within four hours has ever fallen below 70 per cent.
With 24,414 patients seeking emergency treatment over the seven days, it is the second-lowest attendance in 24 weeks.
However, 1,948 patients waited more than eight hours and 630 spent longer than 12 hours waiting to be seen - both record high figures.
NHS Borders dealt with 575 patients seeking emergency treatment and saw 71.7 per cent of them within four hours. This is a sharp drop from the previous week when it dealt with 522 patients and treated 812.4 per cent of them within the target time.
In Dumfries and Galloway, the health board saw a small improvement. It dealt with 759 patients seeking emergency treatment and saw 81.8 per cent in four hours, the previous week it had seen 81.4 per cent of 751 people in the target time.
NHS Forth Valley, which is now responsible for the 13 worst weekly performances recorded by any Scottish health board, was again the worst-performing region, with 48.2 per cent of patients not seen within four hours. It is followed by NHS Lothian, with 34.4 per cent of patients waiting beyond the target time, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (34 per cent) and NHS Lanarkshire (33.5 per cent).
Only Scotland's island health boards: NHS Orkney, NHS Western Isles and NHS Shetland, met the waiting-time target of 95 per cent of patients seen within four hours, with 96.2 per cent, 95.9 per cent and 95.9 per cent of patients seen within the target time respectively.
The news comes as Public Health Scotland figures for September also show a record low number of patients being seen within the target time.
Just 76.1 per cent of A&E patients were seen within four hours and it is now the fifth consecutive month where performance has deteriorated.
Of the 131,491 attendances during September, the official statistics show that 6,779 (5.3 per cent) patients waited more than eight hours and 1,946 (1.5 per cent) patients spent more than 12 hours to be seen.
Earlier today, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has announced a further £10m to help A&E departments, which he said aims to "ease pressures" in emergency departments and "minimise delays".
The money comes on top of the £300m already pledged to help the NHS cope over the winter period - which ministers have warned will be the most challenging ever for the health service.
The additional cash is to be used by health boards to ensure patients in A&E can get the "right care as quickly as possible", with physiotherapists and occupational therapists to be deployed in emergency rooms to triage and treat patients who would otherwise wait to see nursing staff.
This money will also allow extra staff to be on duty on peak public holidays, while more allied health professionals and social care workers will be put on hospital rotas.
A further measure will see hospital pharmacies and diagnostic services, such as scanning and ultra sound departments, operating over extended opening hours to help speed up referrals.
Mr Yousaf said: "This will add to that work so our hospitals and A&E departments are not overstretched, if some patients can be safely and effectively treated elsewhere."
He added: "Placing physiotherapists and occupational therapists in A&E will stop unnecessary hospital admissions so that, for example, patients with musculoskeletal conditions, chest infections, or those who have suffered a fall, can receive the right care quickly and advice on exercises to support recovery at home and in the community.
Responding to the latest figures, Scottish Labour health spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, said: "A&E services are in crisis, with the situation rapidly deteriorating with every passing week. Hard-pressed frontline staff have been sounding the alarm for months, but the Health Secretary has spectacularly failed to take action. Lives are on the line now, and the best the Health Secretary can do is draft in physiotherapists and students to plug the staffing gaps that have grown on his watch.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, said: "It's clear Humza Yousaf is presiding over a crisis in our NHS that deepens with each passing week.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesman, Alex Cole-Hamilton, said: "This is the worst it's been in over a decade. The Health Secretary must commit to a full independent inquiry into the unnecessary deaths arising of this emergency care crisis. There needs to be accountability from the top."
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