By Bill Heaney
Medics will tell you that the first look at a patient who is ill or has been in an accident is the most important.
In Accident and Emergency departments in hospitals that initial inspection is known as triage which can lead to a recovery or a deterioration in a patient’s condiction.
Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie, who is Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson, asked First Minister John Swinney why at least 69,000 patients reportedly waited more than an hour to be triaged in A and E departments in the first half of this year.
Dame Jackie Baillie MSP, the RAH in Paisley and First Minister John Swinney.
Jackie Baillie said: “As the First Minister knows, the reality is that the longer that people are forced to wait for that initial assessment, the greater the chance that their condition deteriorates.
“That speaks to the bigger problem in our NHS. Dr Fiona Hunter, from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Scotland, said:
“Long waits for triage are yet another indicator of a system which is not functioning as it should.
“A recent Institute for Fiscal Studies report demonstrated clearly that the NHS in Scotland is underperforming, despite the hard work of the staff.
“The First Minister is not an innocent bystander. After 17 years in power, does he accept that his Government is failing our NHS, our hard-working NHS staff and the patients in Scotland?”
“We have to focus on some of the practical issues that affect that performance. Some of it is about the demonstration of demand because we are dealing with an increasingly frail population that has been made more frail by the consequences of the Covid pandemic.
“We are also dealing with acute and intense activity in our hospital estate, which is why the Government is putting such an effort into reducing delayed discharge to ensure that we free up the opportunity for patients to make the journey through hospital care and return to their homes where that is possible.
“Those are the practical interventions that the Government is making to address the situation and ensure that in our accident and emergency system the initial assessment of patient condition can be undertaken as speedily and effectively as possible.”