Scottish Government
Printable version

A&E performance

Weekly waiting times published.

Performance figures published yesterday show that 94.2 per cent of patients in core A&E departments were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged with four hours during the week ending August 16.

Yesterday’s figures show a rise of 8.1 percentage points since weekly reporting began in February. It is also 2.4 percentage points higher than the same week last year when 91.8 per cent of patients were seen with four hours at core sites.

Health Minister Shona Robison said yesterday:

"Weekly A&E performance continues to fluctuate with today’s figures showing 94.2 per cent of patients seen within four hours at core A&E sites.

“We have moved on considerably from when weekly reporting began in February, with performance during the week ending August 16 being 8.1 percentage points above that of week ending 22 February. However, I am clear that more needs to be done to continue to improve performance.

"NHS staff have been working hard work over the summer months to maintain this improvement, and today’s figures are testament to this.

“Health boards are continually working to make improvements and it is promising to see that performance at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley for example, has increased by nearly five percentage points during the week ending August 16, compared to the previous week.

“Health boards are also continuing to progress with our 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 community.

“Our focus now is to maintain this improving trend in performance going forward – particularly as we head towards winter. We want to see long-term, sustainable change put in place in order to maintain this high level of performance during peaks and troughs of demand.

“In order to achieve this we have put record funding and staffing in place, and have shown our commitment to tackling delayed discharge through our £100 million investment, as well as through the on-going integration of health and social care. We have also issued winter guidance to health boards almost two months earlier than last year, to ensure they build in optimum levels of resilience capacity in preparation for winter.”

Parliament was also informed yesterday of findings from the Scottish Government’s performance support team’s work with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, which opened in May this year.

In partnership with the health board, the support team started on site at the new hospital for a two week period in June to support the local management team to embed new practices.

There was significant progress over the two weeks, with A&E performance increasing by 10 percentage points from 78.6 per cent in the week ending June 14 to 88.6 per cent in the week ending June 28. Latest A&E performance at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was 94.8 per cent for week ending August 16.

Over the two week period the support team worked closely with the local team on site to implement key measures to support immediate improvements and identified a number of next steps to ensure further improvement and sustainability.

This included extending the hours of the discharge lounge, improving the flow of surgical patients through the hospital system and having earlier specialist intervention of surgical patients.

Ms Robison said:

“The transfer to the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was one of the largest and most complex ever undertaken anywhere in the UK.

“The additional expert support was agreed with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to assist the local staff, who were coming together from the Western, Victoria and the Southern General hospitals, to bed in new systems and processes following the move.

“During their time at the hospital, the support team worked in close partnership with the local team on site and were impressed by the hard working staff and many aspects of the service, including its excellent Treatment Time Guarantee performance, which was maintained throughout the transfer of services.

“Over the course of the two weeks the support team worked with the hospital team to enhance key measures that would support improvement. It is pleasing to see that the initial improvement in performance achieved during the support team’s time at the hospital has continued in recent weeks, with performance at the Queen Elizabeth 16.2 percentage points higher than week ending June 14 when the support team arrived on site.”

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

Notes To Editors

Weekly A&E waiting time figures:

The publication of weekly A&E waiting time statistics for the week ending 16 August 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

The Scottish Government’s support team was present at the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital from June 14 to June 28. The support team’s findings have been published yesterday and are available here: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Simple&DateChoice=0&MSPId=3771&SortBy=DateSubmitted&ResultsPerPage=10

 

 

Channel website: http://www.gov.scot/

Share this article

Latest News from
Scottish Government