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Nine out of 10 people seen within four hours.

New figures for Accident & Emergency waiting times in Scotland show nine out of ten people were seen within four hours between October and December, 2014.

Health Secretary Shona Robison praised staff for working to see patients quickly and said that this winter has seen unprecedented pressures on A&E departments.

In October, November and December of 2014, performance against the four hour target was 91.8 per cent, 91.8 per cent and 89.9 per cent respectively.

Across the quarter, on average, 90.0 per cent of patients seen at core Emergency Department sites were within the four hour target.

Attendances in 2014 were the highest seen in any year since records began. Over the quarter ending December attendances were also up on last year, with over 9000 more people attending A&E departments. The number of admissions to hospital following an A&E attendance was also at their highest level on record – with 101,488 people admitted over the quarter.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said that the Government’s £50 million unscheduled care action plan, the £100 million investment to tackle delayed discharge and a fresh approach to embedding good practice in emergency care across Scotland are the right measures to improve performance.

Ms Robison said:

“Staff in Scotland’s NHS have done a terrific job over what has been a very challenging time and I’d like to thank them for all their work as they cope with an increase in the number of patients and an increase in those being admitted.

“These factors have clearly impacted on performance and today’s figures do not meet the demanding, world leading targets we have set and the standards that patients rightly demand. We are determined to improve performance, which is why have been taking substantial action to ease pressure on the front door of the hospital, as well as concentrating on the timely discharge of patients.

“We announced this month an investment of £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 comes on top of our substantial, £50 million investment in an unscheduled care action plan, which has seen increased staffing – particularly amongst emergency department consultants - and on-going improvement in the system.

“Last week we also announced our intention to roll-out and embed a new collaborative approach to unscheduled care across Scotland, working closely with and welcomed by partners like the Royal College for Emergency Medicine.

“Many hospitals across Scotland are already following this approach, and it is important that we learn from those performing well and embed best practice across the country. This is why we are setting up dedicated support teams who will liaise with health boards to drive forward these action points.

“This approach will not only work to minimise long waits in A&E but will 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.

“These are the right steps to take and I am determined to work with all health boards across the country to improve performance and ensure waits are brought down for patients. Our targets are rightly the most challenging in the UK but it means we need to work even harder to meet them.

“This year there is a lot of action being taken forward to address the implications of an ageing population on our health service, including the integration of health and social care, our review into how out of hours care operates and the on-going work to tackle delayed discharge.”

Notes To Editors

In October, November and December 2014, there were 393,872 attendances at A&E, compared with 384,739 attendances in the same period for 2013. During 2014 as a whole, there were 1,645,200 attendances at A&E, the highest number of any year on record.

Admissions for the quarter in 2014 were at 101,488 which compares with 99,552 for the same period in 2013 and 98278 for the same period in 2012.

NHS England performance against the four-hour target in A&E in England at type 1 sites (a figure that is comparable with Scotland) was 88.9 per cent in the October to December quarter.

Table below shows comparison between NHS Scotland, England and Wales. To note, ‘core’ sites in Scotland relate to ‘type 1’ sites in England and ‘major’ sites in Wales.

Core/type 1/major sites:

The Local Delivery Plan (LDP) for 2015/16 sets out that the A&E four hour standard follows clinical advice to sustain at least 95 per cent of A&E patients being treated within four hours, as a step towards achieving 98 per cent, which is among the toughest A&E standard anywhere in the world. 

Information Services Division will now move these statistics to being published on a monthly basis – following a consultation with service users.