Weekly A&E Figures

A&E departments are still falling short of treating 95% of patients within four hours.

According to figures, more than 121, 000 people required treatment during February, with 86% being seen ontime.

Guidelines state that 95% of admissions should be seen within four hours.

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

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.”