Health Secretary under pressure as record number of patients face 12 hour A&E wait
But Humza Yousaf says the level of pressure on the health service across the UK is "unprecedented"
Last updated 4th Jan 2023
There is increasing pressure on Health Secretary Humza Yousaf after the latest figures revealed a record 1,925 people in Scotland spent 12 hours or more waiting in accident and emergency in the week before Christmas.
The data from Public Health Scotland shows that in the week ending Sunday December 25, just 56.9% of patients in A&E were seen and then either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
That is well below the target of 95% set by the Scottish Government - but is an improvement on the 55% recorded the previous week.
In the week to Christmas Day, A&E departments dealt with 22,892 patients.
Of those, 9,862 waited more than the four-hour target time - with 4,156 patients in A&E for eight hours or more.
A total of 1,925 patients waited for a minimum of 12 hours - up from 1,821 the previous week.
PHS said the figures would be an under count as data for both NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Borders was missing.
Opposition brands waiting time figures "appalling"
The Scottish Conservatives branded the figures "appalling" as they urged First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to sack Mr Yousaf, while Scottish Labour said it is "clear that Humza Yousaf must go, and go now".
Tory health spokesman Sandesh Gulhane said: "Enough is enough. Nicola Sturgeon must take her fingers out her ears, sack Humza Yousaf and recall Parliament to outline emergency measures to ease this unprecedented crisis."
He said the "appalling figures lay bare the crisis in Scotland's A&E wards under Humza Yousaf's inept leadership".
Dr Gulhane said: "Despite the Herculean efforts of frontline staff, waiting times in our emergency departments are unacceptable due to years of dire workforce planning by successive SNP health secretaries, as well as the flimsy recovery plan of the current one.
"We can't tolerate a situation where almost 2,000 patients are waiting over half-a-day to be seen, because we know these delays lead to needless loss of life.”
Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: "These damning statistics lay bare the carnage in our A&E departments over the Christmas period and make it clear that Humza Yousaf must go, and go now.
"Thousands of Scots have waited for hours and hours for medical treatment while lives have been put on the line.
Staff left facing "an impossible struggle"
"Staff are working tirelessly but the inaction of this SNP Government has left them facing an impossible struggle. We are only halfway through this winter so there is still much more to come.
"The time for warm words has come and gone. This crisis has occurred on Humza Yousaf's watch and NHS staff have no confidence that he is the person capable of taking action and leading them out of this crisis.
"Mr Yousaf - it's time to go."
But the health secretary told Tay FM News the figures come at a time when the health service is facing unprecedented challenges: “Clinicians were forecasting that not only would we be dealing with Covid but other viral infections that would come back with some vengeance.
“We’ve seen that not only with flu, but we’ve seen Strep A for example affecting young people in particular.
“This was always going to be the most difficult winter, it’s materialising, we’re seeing that and the Government is taking action where we possibly can – particularly in trying to free up some bed capacity to help with the flow in hospitals, and we’re seeing some marginal gains in trying to reduce that delayed discharge.”
Humza Yousaf has also rejected calls to recall parliament to discuss the health crisis: “I don’t think there’s a need to recall parliament” He told Tay FM News.
The health secretary continued: “I’ll make a statement, first order of business on Tuesday when we return, on NHS pressures and obviously the opposition will then get a chance to question our plans.”