A&E Wait Times Improve At Scotland's New Hospital

Accident and emergency waiting times at Scotland's newest hospital have improved after experts were sent in to help, according to its managers.

The South Glasgow University Hospital was the worst-performing for patient waiting times in emergency departments earlier this month, with almost a quarter of patients not being treated within the Scottish Government's four-hour target.

Weekly waiting time figures published today show that in the week ending June 14, 78.6% of people were treated within four hours.

But NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde has reported that performance at the hospital has improved significantly since June 15 when experts were sent in.

During that period up to June 21, 89.6% of patients were seen within four hours.

The hospital still lags behind the latest national figure, which shows 92.2% of people were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours for the week ending June 14.

This is slightly down on the previous week's figure of 92.6%.

The Scottish Government has set an interim goal of treating 95% of people in four hours in advance of meeting the full target of 98%.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: "As we have seen over the past few weeks, weekly performance will fluctuate. However it is crucial that with ongoing support from the Scottish Government, health boards continue to make sustainable progress towards meeting our world leading targets.

"Last week NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde recognised that not enough people were being seen within four hours at the South Glasgow University Hospital and discussed and agreed additional support with the Scottish Government.

"The transfer to the new #842 million hospital, bringing hundreds of staff together in a new building, was a massive task and there was always likely to be challenges in performance. Nonetheless, it is only right that we also recognise the successes, which saw planned and scheduled services continue to operate well throughout the migration period.

"While long waits in A&E continue to reduce, the additional support is helping embed new systems and processes as staff from the three separate hospitals come together on the new site.''

She added: "We are in regular contact with the health board to monitor performance, and its update to board members today suggests a considerable improvement over recent days.

"While this will be reflected in next week's statistics, simply improving is not enough. We now need to work together to get the South Glasgow University Hospital up to meeting our rigorous A&E targets on a sustainable basis.

"There is still much work to do, but we have put record funding and staffing in place and we are committed to tackling delayed discharge, including through the integration of health and social care.

"That means we have the strong foundations in place to ensure our NHS continues to deliver quick, high-quality care for the people of Scotland.''