Government Team Sent Into Glasgow Super-Hospital
Another fall in A&E waiting time performance at the South Glasgow University Hospital
The Government is sending in an expert team to to sort out the accident and emergency department at the South Glasgow University Hospital just weeks after it opened.
The £800 million hospital has the poorest performance in Scotland against the target of treating 95 per-cent of patients within four hours.
Just 78 per-cent of patients were treated within the target time for the first week of June. Health Secretary Shona Robison said that, from today, expert support from the Scottish Government would help NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde establish and embed improved management systems to ensure the smooth transfer of patients through the emergency department.
The Health Secretary said that while a dip in performance was likely during the first few weeks of the migration, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde is keen to ensure that all learning from across the NHS in Scotland is applied to achieve the improvements required.
Ms Robison said: “The transfer of services across to the new South Glasgow Hospital has been one of the largest and most complex operations NHS Scotland has ever undertaken. This is one of the largest hospitals in Europe - it replaces out of date facilities across Scotland and it will transform the care we provide for patients.
“Given the scale of the task, the migration over to the new hospital has gone extremely smoothly with all adult and children’s moves completed on schedule. The staff of NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde must be commended for that."
Robert Calderwood, Chief Executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "Both the Scottish Government and NHSGGC recognise the enormity of the change in Greater Glasgow and Clyde and there was always an expectation that there would be challenges in A&E performance in the first few weeks of the four hospitals coming together.
“Our teams have responded quickly to these challenges, and have already made a number of systems changes to enhance patient flow throughout the hospital.
“However it is taking longer than expected for an improved A&E performance to be achieved and we therefore welcome the assistance of Scottish Government colleagues who will work with our senior managers and clinicians to use their combined expertise to identify further measures to assist with the bedding-in of services and systems and to achieve the improvements in patient flow required.
“The complex migration programme, which was the biggest ever undertaken in the UK has, in itself been a tremendous success.