Scottish Government urged to fix ‘unacceptable’ A&E wait times
The Scottish Government has been urged to reverse “unacceptable” wait times in the country’s emergency departments.
Wait times in A&E increased slightly in the latest figures for the week ending on April 27, figures from Public Health Scotland show.
Some 11% of patients who attended an emergency department waited more than eight hours for treatment that week, up from 10.6% the week before.
We are moving in the right direction, however we know many people are facing unacceptable waits for treatment
The percentage of people waiting more than 12 hours also rose, from 4.3% to 4.8%.
Some 66.8% of patients were seen, resulting in a subsequent admission, transfer or discharge within four hours – up from 66.3% the previous week.
Meanwhile, figures for the entire month of March improved compared with the previous month.
Some 70.6% of A&E patients were treated within four hours last month, compared with 67.7% in February.
The number of people waiting more than eight hours also dropped from 12% to 9.6%.
And the percentage of people waiting more than 12 hours fell, from 5.3% to 3.9%.
The Scottish Conservatives said wait times continue to be “unacceptable”.
Dr Sandesh Gulhane, the party’s health spokesperson, said: “It’s unacceptable that over 3,000 Scots waited more than eight hours to be seen at A&E last week.
“We know that these delays lead to tragic avoidable deaths.
“The SNP have pushed our health service to the brink of collapse and they still don’t have a credible plan to fix it.
“My frontline colleagues are working flat out for their patients, but they’ve been failed by Humza Yousaf’s botched Covid recovery plan – which even Nicola Sturgeon called ‘awful’.
“We are the only party at Holyrood that have consistently said that this plan wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.
“Enough is enough.
“It’s time Neil Gray got serious and backed our common sense plans to slash bureaucracy and surge resources to the front line.”
Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson Dame Jackie Baillie said: “Behind these figures are thousands of patients trapped in hospitals just waiting to be seen.
“Rather than preparing our NHS for the future, the SNP is presiding over managed decline.
“Scottish Labour will end the A&E ordeal by freeing up hospital beds through tackling delayed discharge and restoring the family doctor so less patients have to seek emergency help in the first place.”
Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “Monthly A&E performance is at its highest since last May and we have seen reductions in long waits – 12-hour waits are at their lowest since September 2023.
“We are moving in the right direction, however we know many people are facing unacceptable waits for treatment.
“We are investing £200 million to drive improvements and enhance capacity.
“To help relieve pressure on A&E we will deliver direct access to specialist frailty teams in every emergency department by summer 2025 and expand Hospital at Home to at least 2,000 beds by the end of 2026.
“These are just some of the measures we are undertaking to shift the balance of care from acute to community.”
