A&E performance improving

7 Apr 2015 10:50 AM

Monthly and weekly A&E performance figures published.

A&E waiting times figures released today for both the month of February and the week ending 29 March, show that improvement is being made despite the challenges of winter.

During the month of February, 86.2 per cent of patients were seen within four hours at core A&E sites across Scotland. This is up from 85.4 per cent in January 2015.

Figures for all sites – which includes minor injury units as well as 24 hour consultant led core sites – show that 87.9 per cent of patients were seen within four hours during February, up from 87.1 per cent in January.

During the week ending March 29, core A&E sites saw 91.3 per cent of people within four hours.

This is a five percentage point increase since weekly A&E performance figures were first published for the week ending February 22, despite attendances having increased by four per cent, over the same period.

Attendances for the year from March 1 2014 to February 28 2015 were higher than the two previous years, with 1,644,341 people turning up at Scotland’s A&E departments.

Long waits have reduced significantly during March. Over the four weeks ending 29th March 2015, there was a reduction of 71.1 per cent in patients waiting over eight hours compared to the month of February.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said:

“As the weekly figures for February have already shown us, this year’s winter was a very challenging one for our A&E departments. However, we are seeing signs of improvement with waits reducing in February when compared to January, and further improvement throughout March.

“Attendances at A&E over the last year have also risen when compared to the two previous years, however, it is encouraging to see that long waits have dropped significantly since the start of the year, with figures for week ending 29 March showing that 0.8 per cent of patients waited for more than eight hours.

“I would like to thank our NHS staff for their hard work and patience throughout the winter months and for treating people as quickly as possible.

“Of course more still needs to be done, and health boards must now focus on sustaining the reduced waiting times we have recently seen and moving towards meeting our world leading targets.

“To help boards achieve this the Government is continuing to support those areas experiencing challenges. This includes £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.”

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 six essential actions 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.

Monthly A&E waiting time figures:

During the month ending February 28, 2015, there was 121,281 attendances at A&E services across Scotland. The total number of attendances in the year to February 28, 2015 was 1,644,341

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

Weekly A&E waiting time figures:

The sixth publication of weekly A&E waiting time statistics for the week ending 29 March 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/2015/04/4153

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/

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

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.

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/