WAITING 12 HOURS AT A&E SOARS BY 70% IN JUST ONE YEAR

By Lucy Ashton

Health Secretary Michael Matheson needs to ‘clean up the mess left by Humza Yousaf’ Jackie Baillie has said today, as new monthly figures show a dramatic rise in A&E wait times despite repeated promises from the SNP to tackle this issue.

In April 2023, a meagre 69.3% of patients were treated within the 4-hour A&E access standard.

Scottish Labour analysis also showed that between January and April 2023 an eye-watering 50,500 patients waited over 8 hours to be seen and admitted, transferred, or discharged at A&E.

Of this, a shocking 21,700 waited over 12 hours to be seen and admitted, transferred, or discharged.

This is an enormous increase of 48% and 70% respectively compared to the same point last year.

This shocking figure reveals Humza Yousaf’s legacy of failure, which has caused A&E wait times to soar and has seen the NHS fail to reach the four hour standard for tens of thousands of patients in just one year.

It also comes as delayed discharge remains stubbornly high.

Michael Matheson – SNP – Falkirk West Pic – Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament

Labour’s Jackie Baillie, Surgeons at work and Health Secretary Michael Matheson.

As at the April 2023 census point, there were 1,730 people delayed, marking an increase of 2.5% on the March 2023 figure. The average number of beds occupied due to delayed discharge remains consistently above 1,700.

In 2023 alone, over 213,000 bed days have been lost to delayed discharge, causing chaos in A&E and putting lives on the line.

Scottish Labour Health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “It could not be any clearer that the SNP has no answers to help our NHS out of this crisis.

“Week after week we hear the same tired old story but the fact remains that A&E wait times and delayed discharge are as bad as ever.

“1 in 7 Scots are stuck on waiting lists and there are thousands of vacancies in our health service, but the SNP cannot even get the basics right.

“We know where the problems lie, but it seems that Michael Matheson and his party lack the will to fix them.

“Michael Matheson needs to clean up the mess left by his predecessor Humza Yousaf and get this crisis under control. Scotland needs a Health Secretary who is willing to stand up for the NHS.”

Monthly A&E long waits

 https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/data-and-intelligence/ae-activity/#section-1

Delayed discharge

• At the April 2023 census point, there were 1,730 people delayed. This is an increase of 42 (2.5%) on the March 2023 census point when 1,688 people were delayed.
• In April 2023, the average number of beds occupied per day due to delayed discharges was 1,711