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Weekly A&E performance figures published.

More than nine out of 10 people were seen within four hours at Scotland’s core A&E sites during the week ending March 22.

The latest weekly figures show 91.7 per cent of patients were seen, treated and either discharged or admitted within four hours.

Across the country 12 boards saw at least nine out of ten A&E patients within four hours at core sites, with more than half of health boards seeing around 95 per cent of patients in this time.

The figures published today are down slightly on last week’s figure of 92.2 per cent, however, performance remains well above the first publication of weekly statistics for the week ending February 22 when 86.1 per cent of people were seen within four hours.

Attendances were up by more than 700 people over the latest week, however, long waits have continued to remain low, with less than one per cent of patients waiting over eight hours.

During the same week NHS England saw 89.6 per cent of A&E patients within four hours at core sites.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said:

“Our core A&E departments across Scotland are continuing to see nine out of ten people within four hours.

“This is of course down to our hard working NHS staff who are doing a fantastic job to treat people as quickly as possible.

“Attendances this week were up on last but reassuringly long waits are continuing to remain low with less than one per cent of patients waiting for more than eight hours – although we are clear that reducing these figures is a main priority.

“There is no doubt this year has been a challenging winter, and this week’s slight drop in performance shows that health boards must now focus on sustaining the reduced waiting times we have recently seen and moving towards meeting our world leading targets.

“They will have the full support of this Government to do so. For example, we recently confirmed our continued support to areas experiencing challenges. This included committing £5 million from the £31.5 million Performance Fund to support improvement across NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to relieve pressure at the front door of the hospital.

“We also expanded the role of the A&E performance support team, put into the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley in January, to support the Western Infirmary by building on lessons learned in Paisley and sharing good practice across all NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde sites.

“It is promising to see that at the Southern General hospital in Glasgow, which in May will move to the new £842 million South Glasgow Hospital, the number of people seen within four hours rose by 5.2 per cent to 92.2 per cent. This is a significant increase on the hospital’s performance during the first weekly publication of A&E figures when it saw 73.1 per cent of people within four hours.”

Notes To Editors

Support for NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde comes ahead of the move to the new £842 million South Glasgow Hospital in May. This will be the largest hospital in Scotland and will replace services at the Royal Hospital for Sick Kids at Yorkhill, the Southern General Hospital, Western and Victoria Infirmaries and Mansionhouse unit. The emergency and assessment capacity at the new hospital will be greater than the combined unscheduled care capacity of the Western, Victoria and Southern General hospitals.

In January the Scottish Government committed £100 million specifically to help health boards and local authorities tackle delayed discharge. This is both good for the patient and frees up beds to help people move out of A&E and through the system.

This is in addition to the Government’s substantial, £50 million investment in an unscheduled care action plan and the roll-out of a new six essential actions approach to unscheduled care across Scotland. This new approach will work to minimise long waits in A&E as well as look to ensure best practice is installed throughout the hospital system, supporting joined up work across health boards to address wider issues of patient flow through hospital.

Long waits have dramatically reduced over the latest week, with eight patients waiting over 12 hours (less than 0.1 per cent of all attendances) and a 60 per cent reduction in the number of patients waiting over 8 hours, to 0.9 per cent of all attendances.

Weekly A&E waiting time figures:

The fifth publication of weekly A&E waiting time statistics for the week ending March 22 covers the 32 emergency departments in Scotland which provide a 24 hour emergency medicine consultant led service.

The statistics relate to patients who were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within 4, 8 and 12 hours.

The latest Weekly Statistical Publication is available at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/7768

The statistics included in the Weekly Publication are also published on ISD’s NHS Performs website:http://www.isdscotland.scot.nhs.uk/Products-and-Services/NHS-Performs/

NHS Performs:

ISD produced a new section within their website for the initial release of NHS Performs on March 3 2015. Further work to develop the data and functionality of NHS Performs is already underway with a refresh planned for June 2015. Initial statistics available via NHS Performs from the 3 March 2015 include:

• Weekly statistics relating to Emergency Departments at hospital, NHS Board and Scotland
• Number of A&E attendances, % seen within 4 hours, number over 4, 8 and 12 hours
• Monthly statistics relating to A&E activity at hospital, NHS Board and Scotland.
• Number of A&E attendances, % resulting in admission, % seen within 4 hours, numbers over 4, 8 and 12 hours
• Quarterly statistics relating to Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios at hospital and Scotland
• Standardised Mortality Ratio (SMR) and % Change in SMR since 2007
• Weekly statistics relating to norovirus at hospital, NHS Board and Scotland
• Total number of wards closed
• Quarterly statistics relating to Healthcare associated infection at NHS Board and Scotland including C. difficile infections (over 15s) and SAB Infections.

The new website can be accessed at: http://www.isdscotland.scot.nhs.uk/Products-and-Services/NHS-Performs/

Essential actions for unscheduled care:

In January the Scottish Government announced plans to roll-out and embed a new collaborative approach to unscheduled care across Scotland.

Developed in partnership with the Academy of Royal Colleges, the Royal College of Nursing and other key partners, the new essential action points for unscheduled care aim to ensure the whole NHS system works together effectively from a patient’s first contact with the NHS to, if they require admission, their discharge from hospital back into the community.

More information on this is available here: http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Review-of-out-of-hours-primary-care-1568.aspx