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Weekly A&E performance figures published.

Health Secretary Shona Robison has praised NHS Scotland staff for seeing nine out of ten Accident & Emergency patients within four hours.

Waiting times figures for the week ending March 8, show that 90.1 per cent of people were treated and either discharged or admitted to hospital within four hours at core A&E sites across Scotland.

This is the third publication of weekly waiting times statistics for core sites in Scotland, with figures up on last week when 86.9 per cent of people were seen within four hours.

This is also up on waiting times at core sites during the month of January when 85.4 per cent of people were seen within four hours.

Half of Scotland’s health boards are now treating more than 95 per cent of patients within 4 hours.

Long waits have also dramatically reduced over the latest week, with a 60 per cent reduction in the number of patients waiting over eight hours.

During the same week NHS England saw 89 per cent of A&E patients within four hours at core sites.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said:

“Scotland’s core A&E sites are seeing, treating and either discharging or admitting nine out of 10 people within four hours. This improving performance is an encouraging sign that, backed up by Government support, health boards are recovering from a challenging winter. There have also been substantial reductions in long waits in the last week

“That is thanks to staff in Scotland’s NHS, who are doing a fantastic job to treat people as quickly as possible.

“Despite this progress, however, there are still considerable improvements to be made to benefit patients. We are continuing to see the effects of the winter, which has brought an increase in attendances and admissions, as well as more severe flu related illnesses and people with complex illnesses.

“The key point for boards is now to sustain the improved position and focus on moving towards meeting our world leading, stringent targets.

“It is also encouraging that health boards such as NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Ayrshire & Arran, which have been experiencing challenges, are continuing to improve, with all three boards seeing more people within four hours during the week ending March 8.

“Of course, more still needs to be done. Earlier this month we 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.”

Today’s figures show that the number of A&E patients being treated within four hours at the Royal Alexandra Hospital has increased from 75 per cent during the week ending February 22, up to 88.2 per cent during the week ending March 8.

Other sites in the west are also continuing to improve, including Monklands Hospital where the number of people seen within four hours has risen from 87.5 per cent in December 2014 to 97 per cent during the week ending March 8.

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 collaborative 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 18 patients waiting over 12 hours (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 third publication of weekly A&E waiting time statistics for the week ending March 8 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/2015/03/8549

The statistics included in the Weekly Publication are also published on ISD’s NHS Performs website:http://www.isdscotland.org/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 level
• 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 level
• 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