WIREDGOV

Weekly and monthly figures published.

Weekly A&E performance remains stable, with 94.3 per cent of patients seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours at ‘core’ A&E sites during the week ending 22 November 2015.

Figures published today also show that for the month of October, 94.7 per cent of attendances at all A&E services across Scotland were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours. Monthly performance is almost three percentage points higher than October last year.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said:

“Although the figures are much better than the same time last year and progressively better than the rest of the UK over the last seven months, I am clear that there is more work to be done on A&E waiting times, in particular as we head into winter.

“We know that the weekly performance figure can fluctuate, but it is encouraging to see that performance has remained stable and was more than three percentage points higher than the same week last year.

“Of course, any long patient wait is unacceptable and health boards know that they must do everything they can to eradicate them. This is why we circulated guidance to health boards in September on eliminating crowding and long waits in A&E and Assessment Units, by ensuring best practice escalation measures are in place in each hospital and health board. This guidance was produced jointly with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and other clinical and managerial service representatives.

“As we prepare to head into winter we have been working closely with health boards and stakeholders to put further measures in place. This includes our winter guidance for boards, which was issued two months earlier this year than previous years, and additional investment of £10.7 million which will help ease pressure.

“In addition, the national unscheduled care team continues to work closely with a number of local teams across Scotland to monitor performance and progress the six essential actions, which aim to minimise long waits in A&E and assessment units by improving patient flow throughout all areas of the hospital and in the community.

“However, there is still more work to do and I am continuing to receive regular updates from sites experiencing challenges to ensure that progress is being made to drive down waiting times.”

Notes To Editors

The full statistical publication is available on the ISD Scotland website: http://www.isdscotland.org/

Weekly A&E waiting time figures:

The publication of weekly A&E waiting time statistics for the week ending 22 November covers the 30 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 figures are also available on the NHS Performs website: http://www.nhsperforms.scot