Triple in A&E patients waiting longer than four hours

Posted: May 9, 2014

Posted in: Medical Negligence 

A recent report has revealed that three times as many people have to wait for treatment in A&E than five years ago.  With the national target expecting 98% of A&E patients to be seen within a four-hour window, the report found that NHS Scotland has rarely managed to reach this. The report highlighted that 104,000 people waited beyond the four-hour target in 2012-13, compared with 36,000 people in 2008-09.

The Health Secretary, Alex Neil, argued that NHS Scotland is “treating more emergency patients than ever before”. Labour, however, have called for a “full-scale review” to be carried out, looking at how the health service will be able to cope with this increase in the future.

Failed to reach standards almost every month

The report highlighted that only two hospitals managed to reach the target of 98% of people being seen within four-hours every month of the financial year 2012-13. These were Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick, Shetland, and Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital. Other hospitals across Scotland failed to reach this standard in almost every month.

With the report causing a great degree of dispute surrounding the efficiency of NHS Scotland’s A&E departments, Mr Salmond said that measures had already been taken to improve on the problem. He said that a £50million emergency care action plan had been put in place, alongside the recruitment of many additional staff across all of Scotland’s hospitals. He added:

“Working together, we’re going to bring about the sort of improvement that Scotland requires and the patients of Scotland deserve.”

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