Scottish Ops Postponed Due To High Demand

Some planned medical procedures have been postponed and other patients experienced long waits at A&E during a busy few days for the NHS in parts of Scotland.

Various hospitals around the country experienced high levels of demand over the weekend and into the working week.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) said it is experiencing extreme pressure'' on its systems and has had to postpone 44 planned procedures since yesterday. NHS Lothian deferreda small number'' of procedures yesterday and today.

NHS Grampian said it postponed 20 planned, or elective'', procedures today and said Aberdeen Royal Infirmary wasparticularly busy''.

A spokeswoman said winter pressures were partly behind the situation and stressed it was not due to staffing issues.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran said the A&E department of University Hospital Ayr had been extremely busy'' in recent days.

Over Sunday and yesterday, a total of five patients waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to an appropriate bed.

The Forth Valley Royal Hospital was also unable to maintain the four-hour target in all cases at the emergency department.

In Inverness, Raigmore Hospital's A&E department was said to be busy but in line with expectations for the time of year.

Health bosses said they appreciate the understanding of the public at what is typically a busy time for hospitals around the country.

NHSGGC apologised to patients who experienced lengthy waits.

A spokesman said: Over the past few days we have experienced intense pressures on our emergency departments.

Despite the best efforts of staff right across our acute hospitals system and from colleagues in the community, many patients have had to wait far longer than we would want them to before either discharging them after treatment or admitting them to inpatient wards.

We would like to apologise to all our patients who experienced these lengthy waits.

All efforts are being made to meet these demands and ensure that patients are admitted or discharged as quickly as possible.''

The board also apologised to patients whose procedures were postponed and said the process of rebooking them is under way.

An NHS Grampian spokeswoman confirmed that 20 minor procedures were postponed today.

The statement went on: Due to high demand on our services we are postponing some elective procedures.

This decision - which has not been taken lightly - will allow clinicians to concentrate on acute and emergency care.

We are contacting patients directly to inform them of any postponement. The decision to postpone is made following a clinical assessment.

We apologise to all patients affected and will rearrange their procedure as soon as possible.''

University Hospital Ayr said there had been some breaches of the waiting time target.

Liz Moore, director for acute services, said: As with accident and emergency departments across the country, the accident and emergency department of University Hospital Ayr has been extremely busy over the past few days.

While we are trying to ensure all patients are assessed and treated as quickly as possible, there have been some breaches of the waiting-time target.

The breaches have been for those patients waiting to be admitted to an appropriate bed.

Those patients have been medically assessed, diagnostic tests carried out and active treatment commenced.''

Three patients waited more than 12 hours on Sunday and two waited that length of time yesterday.

Currently, the waiting time for patients requiring admission is around four hours while the waiting time for minor illness or injuries is under two hours.

No patients have had to be treated in an ambulance while waiting to be admitted to the accident and emergency department,'' Ms Moore added.

NHS Forth Valley said the emergency department at the Forth Valley Royal was busy at the weekend, with just under 400 people attending over Saturday and Sunday.

Staff worked very hard to meet demand and whilst the majority of patients were seen within the four-hour target we unfortunately were unable to maintain the target in all cases,'' the health board said in a statement.

James Crombie, director of scheduled care at NHS Lothian, said: We are experiencing a very busy period across all our hospitals and as a consequence of this we have deferred a number of elective procedures.

We sincerely apologise to all those affected, our clinical teams will be working hard to offer suitable alternative dates as quickly as we can.''

A spokeswoman for Raigmore Hospital, the largest in the NHS Highland area, said: It's been busy today but no more than we'd expect for this time of year.''

She said the A&E department expects to receive 75 to 130 patients per day at this time of year and the figure has recently been standing at around 100 a day.