Scotland's A&E waiting times show slight upturn

Waiting times at Scotland's hospital A&E units showed a slight improvement a week on from record low figures.

Statistics for week ending 18 September revealed 66.2% of patients were dealt with within the four-hour target.

That is up slightly from the 63.5% for week ending 11 September, the worst on record.

In the latest weekly figures from Public Health Scotland 26,403 attended A&E and 8,931 were there for four hours or more - down from 9,924.

The report also showed 2,697 waited more than eight hours, a drop of 3,381 the previous week.

The number of patients who waited 12 hours or more was 998, a decrease from 1,266 the previous week.

The Scottish government target is that 95% of patients attending A&E are seen and subsequently admitted or discharged within four hours.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf welcomed the "immediate improvement" in waiting times, pointing to a 20% reduction in the number waiting longer than eight hours, and 21% drop in those waiting longer than 12 hours.

"I am grateful to NHS staff for their hard work and commitment during this period of continued challenge," he said.

Mr Yousaf had met with NHS bosses in some of the health boards where performance is "most difficult", he said, adding a letter has also been sent to boards "setting out immediate actions to ensure imminent performance recovery".

A&E departments were still "working under significant pressure", he said, and that "in common with healthcare systems in the UK and globally, the pandemic continues to affect services".

But opposition parties have demanded further action, with the Scottish Conservatives saying without changes the increased pressure winter will place on A&E departments "doesn't bear thinking about".

Health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the latest figures were "further evidence of the scale of the crisis in Scotland's A&E wards that Humza Yousaf is presiding over".

Dr Gulhane added it was "unacceptable" that more than one third of people were having to wait over four hours to be seen and added "we know that excess delays lead to needless deaths".

Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said the SNP "cannot be allowed to normalise this crisis and expect staff and patients to accept failure".

She also called for urgent improvements "to stave off disaster this winter".

Ms Baillie added: "Make no mistake - failure to address this crisis is costing lives."

And Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said an inquiry was now needed into "avoidable deaths linked to the crisis in emergency care".

He added: "We cannot allow this scale of waits in our A&E departments to simply become the new normal, as our health secretary seems content to allow," he added.

"Ministers have sat on their hands long enough while the NHS suffers."

The Scottish government began publishing weekly A&E statistics in February 2015 after concerns the number of people dealt with within four hours had dropped to 86%.

The figure has been below 70% since May this year.