Third of folk who wait four hours to be seen in A&E is ‘shocking norm’

More than a third of patients waiting at least four hours to be seen at A&E is “now the shocking norm”, the Scottish Tories have claimed, despite a slight decline in lengthy waits.

In the week ending March 10, 17,034 of emergency department attendances were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within the four-hour target.

That is the equivalent of 65.2% of the total 26,112 unplanned A&E attendances last week, compared with 65.3% or 26,055 in the week ending March 3.

And 11.3%, or 2,943 patients, spent more than eight hours waiting to be seen, compared with 3,058 (11.7%) the previous week.

The figures, published by Public Health Scotland, also showed 1,138 (4.4%) patients spent more than 12 hours in A&E.

But despite the slight improvements, Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the delays are leading to “needless deaths”.

He said: “It is now the shocking norm that over a third of patients have to wait four hours to be seen at A&E.

“The blame lies firmly with the SNP whose dire workforce planning has left our frontline services dangerously overstretched and understaffed.”

Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “We recognise that long delays remain too high and we continue to work with health boards to reduce these instances.

“A&E performance is impacted by pressures from across the wider health and social care system which is why our Unscheduled Care Collaborative Programme is taking a whole system approach as we work with health boards to deliver sustained improvement.”

There were slight improvements to waiting times.