Health Secretary under fire over ‘swelling’ queues in accident and emergency

The Scottish Government has come under fire over “swelling” queues in accident and emergency, with the latest figures showing a rise in the number of patients who had to wait longer than the target time for treatment.

Official figures for the week ending June 1 showed that of the 28,042 people who went to A&E for help, 65.5% were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

That is down from 67.1% of patients the previous week, with performance continuing to be well below the Scottish Government’s target of having 95% of patients admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

The latest weekly Public Health Scotland data showed 9,671 people spent longer than four hours in the emergency department in the week ending June 1 – with this up from 9,461 the previous week.

Meanwhile, 3,410 patients were there for eight hours or more, up from 2,993 the previous week.

And 1,416 patients were there for a minimum of 12 hours – with this the highest number of patients having such long waits since the week ending March 2.

While Health Secretary Neil Gray accepted that “current A&E performance is below the levels we all wish to see” he came under fire from opposition politicians.

Scottish Labour health spokesperson Dame Jackie Baillie said: “The queues are swelling at A&E and the SNP has no realistic plan to get them down.”

Dame Jackie added: “Patients are crammed into hospital corridors while staff are trying to prop up a broken system.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Dr Sandesh Gulhane was also critical of SNP ministers, saying: “John Swinney and Neil Gray are trying to pretend that our NHS has turned a corner, but the reality is things are awful – and getting worse.”

The Tory, who is a GP as well as an MSP, said: “It’s shameful that more than a third of patients are waiting longer than four hours to be seen during summer, when the pressure on A&E departments should be easing.

“These delays aren’t just statistics. They lead to tragic, avoidable deaths. Frontline staff are working tirelessly for patients, but they’re being failed by the dire workforce planning of successive SNP health secretaries.”

Dr Gulhane added: “Neil Gray can’t keep burying his head in the sand. He needs to show some common sense and back our plan to slash NHS red tape, cut middle managers and guarantee resources will get to frontline care services.”

Mr Gray stressed that “Scotland’s core A&E sites have been the best performing in the UK for a decade.”

However, the Health Secretary said: “Our emergency departments are facing sustained pressure with high levels of hospital occupancy impacting patient flow and causing delays.

“This situation is not unique to Scotland with all UK nations experiencing similar pressures.”

He continued: “Current A&E performance is below the levels we all wish to see and we are determined to drive improvements.

“We want to shift the balance of care from acute to community and to do this we will deliver direct access to specialist frailty teams in every emergency department by summer 2025 and expand Hospital at Home to at least 2,000 beds by the end of 2026.”