A&E Targets Missed Again

Accident and Emergency departments are still failing to treat patients quickly enough.

The Scottish government wants 95 percent seen within four hours.

New figures show 86 percent were treated in that time between the 15th and 22nd February.

Statistics on A&E performance are now published weekly to ensure that the public can have access to accurate, high quality and timely statistics, following pressure from opposition MSPs.

Between Feb 15-22:

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

Sian Kiley from the Royal College of Nursing Scotland says there's a wider problem in the NHS:

Meanwhile, The number of NHS staff working in Scotland has risen to a record high, according to the Scottish government.

As of 31 December 2014, the total number of NHS Scotland staff in post was 137,511.9 whole time equivalent (WTE) – an increase of 1.8 per cent in a year.

The figures, released by ISD Scotland, show that under the current government the NHS Scotland workforce has grown by over 8 per cent, with 10,450 more WTE staff.

This includes an additional 2,315.7 WTE qualified nurses and midwives working in the NHS under this Government – a rise of 5.6 per cent to a new record high level of over 43,000 WTE qualified nurses and midwives.

The number of doctors working in the Scottish NHS has also increased by over 2,300 WTE under this Government, an increase of around 25 per cent.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “This Government is committed to protecting our NHS workforce – ensuring we have appropriate levels of staff to deliver the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

“Our NHS staff work incredibly hard to deliver excellent patient care day-in and day-out, and we are determined to give these staff the support they need to meet the increasing demands on our health service.

“That is why it’s welcome to see a further increase in the NHS workforce, with over 10,000 more staff under this Government and nearly 2,500 WTE extra members of staff in the last year alone.

“This, coupled with our decision to increase the health budget next year to a record £12 billion, demonstrates this Government’s commitment to protecting frontline NHS services.

“In Scotland, we recognise the immense contribution of our staff to the daily running of the health service and we will continue to work with them to grow the NHS workforce, ensuring patients continue to receive the high quality care expected in Scotland.”