A&E departments miss waiting time target
Accident and emergency (A&E) departments have missed a key waiting time target despite a year-on-year improvement in performance.
Accident and emergency (A&E) departments have missed a key waiting time target despite a year-on-year improvement in performance.
The Scottish Government has set an interim target for at least 95% of A&E patients to be seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
The latest figures show 91.3% of patients were seen within the target time in the week ending February 7, compared to 85.1% in the same week last year.
A total of 258 patients (1%) spent more than eight hours in A&E, while 44 people (0.2%) waited more than 12 hours.
The poorest performing health boards were NHS Lanarkshire (88.1%), NHS Lothian (88.5%) and NHS Forth Valley (88.7%).
Glasgow Royal Infirmary was the worst performing A&E site (85.2%), followed by Wishaw General Hospital (85.4%), St John's Hospital at Howden (85.5%) and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (85.7%).
The Scottish Government said that in the 10-week period to February 7, there was a 64% reduction in patients waiting more than eight hours and a 67% fall in those waiting more than 12 hours when compared to the same period last year.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said: We know that in winter A&E performance can fluctuate from week to week and also from hospital to hospital as pressure on the service increases. However, it is promising that A&E waiting times this winter have consistently been better than last year.
Nationally, our core accident and emergency waiting times have also been better than elsewhere in the UK for the last 10 months of published data from March to December 2015.
While performance has remained up on the same period as last year throughout this winter, we know there is still more to be done to retain and build on improved performance, and to make sure that patients continue to receive the care they deserve.
We have put record investment in place and increased staffing to help meet demand through this winter period and are working closely with health boards to minimise any dips in performance.''