Scottish A&E departments meet key targets

Accident-and-emergency departments have met a key waiting-times target, although one in 10 patients still had to wait more than four hours at Scotland’s newest hospital.
95.2 per cent A&E departments admitted, transferred and discharged within four hours.95.2 per cent A&E departments admitted, transferred and discharged within four hours.
95.2 per cent A&E departments admitted, transferred and discharged within four hours.

Staff in A&E units dealt with 23,195 patients in the week ending October 18, with 95.2 per cent of them seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours - meeting the Scottish Government’s interim target of 95 per cent.

But at the £842 million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, 90 per cent of cases were dealt with within this time.

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Glasgow Royal Infirmary - another hospital in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area - had the worst-performing A&E department, with 87.2 per cent of people seen in four hours.

There were two hospitals which managed to treat 100 per cent of patients within the target time, with staff at Caithness General Hospital and at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital dealing with everyone in A&E within four hours.

A total of 14 out of 30 hospitals met the Scottish Government’s full target of admitting, transferring or discharging 98 per cent of A&E patients in this time.

Health Secretary Shona Robison praised hospital workers for their efforts as she added the performance rate at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was up from 82.9 per cent in the week ending October 11 and compares to a record low of 77.2 per cent of patients seen within four hours the week before.

Ms Robison said: “NHS staff across Scotland have been working extremely hard to ensure performance continues to remain substantially above the same period last year and I would like to thank them for their efforts.

“Figures published today are five percentage points higher than the same week last year and show an overall improvement of over nine percentage points since weekly reporting began in February.

“Today’s figures also show that 14 departments recorded performance at 98 per cent or above - the highest number of sites in any one week since weekly reporting began.”

The Health Secretary added: “Performance at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital has improved by more than seven percentage points since last week, with nine out of 10 people being seen within four hours.

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“This is progress but the site continues to work through its action plan to create additional capacity within the immediate assessment unit to tackle patient delays as well as creating additional bed capacity at the hospital.”

In the week ending October 18, a total of 10 regional health boards met the 95 per cent interim target for A&E waiting times, with four - NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire failing to achieve it.