WIREDGOV

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland.

On the 17th February the Chief Statistician confirmed that weekly Accident and Emergency (A&E) statistics would be published each Tuesday from the 3rd March onwards. This was to ensure that the public can have access to accurate, high quality and timely statistics.

Today sees the first publication of these new statistics, which includes total attendances and waiting times for the 32 Emergency Departments in Scotland which provide a 24 hour emergency medicine consultant led service.

Over 80% of NHSScotland’s accident and emergency activity currently takes place in these departments.

Over the week ending 23:59 on Sunday the 22nd February –

• There were 25,554 attendances to Scotland’s 32 Emergency Departments.
• The proportion of attendances to those 32 Emergency Departments that were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within 4 hours was 86.1%.
• 689 patients (2.7%) spent more than 8 hours and 187 patients (0.7%) spent more than 12 hours in the 32 Emergency Departments.

The figures released today were produced by independent statistical staff free from any political interference, in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Notes To Editors

These statistics are produced by Scottish Government statisticians and are based on aggregate information submitted by NHS Boards direct to the Scottish Government. They report on activity in the 32 Emergency Departments that provide a 24 hour emergency medicine consultant led service (as identified by ISD Scotland). ISD is part of NHS National Services Scotland and provides health information, health intelligence and statistical services.

In addition to these new weekly statistics, ISD Scotland produce a monthly National Statistics report. The ISD report includes all sites that provide accident and emergency care, including the 32 Emergency Departments, Minor Injuries Units (MIUs) and other facilities. 

The 4 hour Accident and Emergency waiting time Standard relates to all sites that carry out accident and emergency activity in Scotland. This includes the 32 Emergency Departments, MIUs and other facilities.

As the new weekly statistics only include the 32 Emergency Departments, users who want to compare national waiting times against the 4 hour Standard should refer to the latest ISD publication. This reported that 87.1% of all accident and emergency attendances in Scotland were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within 4 hours during January 2015.

The latest Weekly Statistical Publication is available at:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/7923 

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/ 

The latest monthly National Statistics ISD publication is available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Emergency-Care/

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – more information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland can be accessed at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/About