By Lucy Ashton
Hundreds of deaths were linked to long waits in Scotland’s accident and emergency departments last year, according to a report that shows “the true cost of SNP failure”.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) analysis said there were 818 “excess deaths” related to waits of at least 12 hours in hospital A&E departments.
Dr Fiona Hunter, the college vice-president, said it was a “national tragedy” that more than 800 people had died because of an NHS “system in crisis”.
She said the deaths “often” involved patients forced to wait hours “on a trolley in a corridor, cupboard, or simply any available floor space” because there were no beds.
Holyrood’s opposition parties said SNP ministers should “hang their heads in shame”.
SNP ministers have set a target of 95 per cent of A&E attendees being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival.
The figures showed 5.4 per cents of attendees at emergency departments waited more than half a day in the week ending Sept 7.
Only 63.1 per cent were seen within the target four hours, the lowest level since February.
Dr Hunter said: “The fact that the deaths of more than 800 patients have been lost due to a system in crisis is a national tragedy.
“Behind this statistic are stories of heartbreak. Because these are people. Mums, dads, brothers, sisters, grandparents – their deaths shattering the lives of families and friends.
“These are patients who are sick and need further care on a ward. So they are forced to endure extreme wait times for an inpatient bed to become available for them.”
The RCEM analysis said 76,510 people waited longer than 12 hours in Scotland’s emergency departments last year, an increase of 20,432 compared to 2023.
This estimates that there will be one additional death for every 72 patients that are forced to wait between eight and 12 hours, equating to 818 deaths.
The analysis also found that 9,881 Scots were forced to endure a wait of at least 12 hour in the summer months of June and July this year, when A&E departments are usually quieter. This was 7,003 more than for the entire year of 2018.
Dr Sandesh Gulhane, a GP and the Scottish Tories’ shadow health secretary, said: “SNP ministers should hang their heads in shame at these heartbreaking figures, which lay bare the human toll of the SNP’s chronic mismanagement of emergency care.
“These completely avoidable deaths are the direct result of the Nationalists’ abject failure to meet their own A&E targets.”
Dumbarton MSP Dame Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s health spokesman, said: “This damning analysis lays bare the true cost of SNP failure.
“For years Scots have been dying as a result of dangerously long waits in A&E, but the SNP has stood idly by while this crisis ran riot.”
The Scottish Government was approached for comment.
Top of page: John Swinney and SNP Health Secretary Iain Gray on a hospital visit.