Latest A&E waiting times worst on record again

Emergency departments across Scotland are missing waiting time targets

Scotland's accident and emergency waiting times have hit their worst level on record once again.

Latest weekly statistics reveal that 7,212 of the 25,123 people attending A&E departments in the week ending 3 October were not admitted, discharged or transferred four hours after arriving.

Just 71.3% of patients were seen within the target time, below the 95% the Scottish government aims for.

This has not been met since July 2020.

Opposition parties have called the figures "terrifying" and an "unmitigated disaster".

• A&E waiting times worst in six years

• Why are Scotland's emergency departments so busy?

A record number of patients - 591 - were left waiting in A&E for more than 12 hours, according to data published by Public Health Scotland.

The figures also show 1,782 people waited longer than eight hours - the second highest since records began.

Scotland's worst-performing health board once again was NHS Forth Valley, where 50.3% of A&E patients were seen within the target time, followed by NHS Lanarkshire (62.9%) and NHS Fife (64.8%).

Only Scotland's island health boards - NHS Western Isles, NHS Shetland and NHS Orkney - met the waiting time target, with performances of 100%, 98.3% and 95.9% respectively.

A&E performance against the waiting time target has plummeted in recent months, with more patients waiting longer than four hours in August than ever before.

There were a total of 30,184 cases where the four-hour waiting time target was missed in August - 5,683 more than the previous month's record high and an increase of 23.2%.

'Over-burdened'

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: "The problem we have is the health service is very, very over-burdened by the current demand of the combination of the pandemic and our desire to deal with the backlog of treatment that is necessary within the community.

"Our hospitals are very congested and one of the ways we can try to tackle that is by trying to ensure that people who don't need to be in hospital can be properly supported in other care settings and ideally at home.

"The health secretary announced just last week a whole series of measures to strengthen the capacity of the social care sector who do a phenomenal amount of good work to try to support us in that endeavour.

"It will take a while for those measures to have an effect but we are working very hard with local authority partners to enable us to deliver that stronger performance for patients in A&E."

Last week Health Secretary Humza Yousaf warned that Scotland's NHS faced an "incredibly difficult winter" despite announcing a £300m funding boost.

But opposition parties have now accused him of "overseeing a scandalous situation" and leaving A&E departments "beyond breaking point".

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: "These figures are nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for Humza Yousaf.

"He has completely failed to resource our A&E departments that are beyond breaking point.

"Humza Yousaf is overseeing a scandalous situation in our NHS. Thousands of patients are not being seen within the SNP's own target waiting times. His inaction is putting heroic staff under immense pressure before we even hit the peak winter period."

Dr Gulhane added: "The support being offered by our UK armed forces is incredibly welcome, but the health secretary has still not outlined a plan to maximise their use.

"Humza Yousaf must finally show some leadership and get on top of this A&E crisis, which is now completely out of control."

'Safety net'

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "These numbers are terrifying for staff and patients alike.

"The NHS has always been a safety net for anyone who needs it but, after years of poor workforce management, that net has huge holes in it. Undoubtedly, people will be slipping through.

"The health service isn't just struggling, it is being crippled by government mismanagement.

"There simply aren't enough nurses available to prop hospitals up. There are thousands of vacancies, and the health secretary proposes recruiting just 200 from overseas.

"Those working through this are swamped, and have little reason to trust that this government will make things better."

'Winter catastrophe'

Scottish Labour's health spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, said Scotland was "on track for another winter catastrophe this year if we fail to act".

She added: "The SNP need to listen to the warnings from staff on the front line and get a grip on the growing emergency in our NHS before the cold weather really bites.

"There is no time to waste when this many lives are on the line."

A Scottish government spokeswoman said the coronavirus pandemic "has inevitably affected A&E attendance" and stressed that an additional £27m had been allocated to redesign urgent care in the health service.

"Our NHS staff have faced unprecedented pressures over recent weeks as they work tirelessly and consistently to respond to the pandemic whilst continuing to provide vital treatment and optimal patient care," she said.

"To minimise pressures as much as possible this winter, we've recently announced £300m of measures to help increase NHS and social care capacity in our hospitals and reduce delayed discharges.

"In the meantime, we will continue to work closely with those sites facing the greatest challenges to ensure rapid recovery plans are in place and are in contact daily."