NHS crisis: Hundreds of Scots dying after waiting up to five days in A&E

More than 7,300 Scots had to wait more than a day in an emergency department in 2023

An estimated 2,000 Scots could have died last year because of “deadly” waits of up to five days in A&E departments.

New statistics show more than 7,300 Scots had to wait more than a day in emergency departments across the country before they were discharged, admitted or transferred.

This crisis is now continuing into 2024, with the number of people waiting more than half a day to be seen in A&E in January rising to its highest level on record.

Thousands of Scots could have died because of long waits in A&E departments across Scotland. Image: Jeff Moore/Press Association.

Scottish Labour is now calling on the health secretary to take urgent action to stop more unnecessary deaths happening because of long waiting times.

According to Public Health Scotland, one patient at University Hospital Crosshouse in Kilmarnock waited over 122 hours in A&E in 2023, which is over five days.

Another patient waited over 88 hours at Borders General Hospital, and another at University Hospital Wishaw waited over 72 hours.

These delays have continued into 2024, with one patient left stranded in Caithness General Hospital’s emergency department for over four days.

Meanwhile Scotland’s largest health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, recorded a wait of over a day and a half in January.

Long waits have also been recorded this year at NHS Borders, NHS Grampian and NHS Lanarkshire.

The latest A&E waiting time statistics released last week found just 65.5 per cent of people attending emergency departments were seen within the target waiting time of four hours.

In January the number of people waiting in A&E for more than eight hours increased to 17,893 and those waiting more than half a day rose to 8,857, which is the highest on record.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine calculates there will be an excess death for every one in 72 patients who spend between eight and 12 hours in an emergency department - based on this, it is estimated long waiting times caused 2,000 excess deaths in 2023.

Dame Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and health spokeswoman, says Health Secretary Neil Gray must take immediate action by investing in primary care to avoid any further deaths.

She said: “Scotland’s A&E departments are in the grip of a deadly crisis, with lives being put on the line day in and day out.

“That some people have waited days - even a working week - to be seen is dangerous and disgraceful.”

The latest NHS statistics, published last Tuesday, also found the number of days a patient with a delayed discharge was spending in hospital was 57,860, which is up 351 on the previous year.

The number of operations carried out was also over 430,000 fewer than before March 2020, and in January 2024 one in 10 planned operations were cancelled either on the day of the operation, or the day before.

The highest cancellation rate was at NHS Forth Valley, at 16.4 per cent, up from 8.4 per cent two months ago, followed by NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Borders.

This comes after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar criticised First Minister Humza Yousaf for breaking the law that guarantees all Scottish patients get treated within 12 weeks.

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He says the SNP has broken this law over 680,000 times, including 320,000 times before the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

This treatment time guarantee has also been broken 306,735 times since Mr Yousaf published his NHS recovery plan.

At first minister’s questions last week, Mr Sarwar said: “Every one of these breaches is someone waiting anxiously for a medical procedure, often in pain.

“Many have put their lives on hold, stopped work or retired because of their condition.

“Too many of them are forced to go private in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, just to stop the pain.

“Across nearly every measure this government has failed.”

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “We know that long delays remain too high and we continue to work with boards to reduce these instances, which are not unique to Scotland.

“A&E performance is impacted by pressures from across the wider health and social care system, which is why our unscheduled care collaborative programme is taking a whole system approach as we work with health boards to deliver sustained improvement.

“Hospital bed occupancy continues to be a major factor impacting on performance.

“To address this, the delayed discharge and hospital occupancy action plan is being implemented at pace, delivering actions we know work to ensure patients receive the right care in the right setting.”