14 November 2025
Responding to the Scottish government’s £20 million funding announcement to boost social care capacity this winter, alongside its National Planning for Winter and Surge Pressures in Health and Social Care, unveiled this week (13 November 2025), RCEM Vice President for Scotland Dr Fiona Hunter said: “We welcome and recognise this much needed investment into social care.
“Even though this funding is not for care happening inside the walls of the Emergency Department, bolstering social care capacity is one of the best ways to make sure people can leave hospital when they are deemed medically well enough to do so.
“Last winter, from November to February, there were 1,991 patients stuck in hospital each day, despite being well enough to leave. That was a record. We can’t let a new record be set this year.
“We need these beds. Patients are spending extreme hours in our departments waiting for that elusive ward bed to become available, often in a corridor, on a trolley or another inappropriate space.
“However, this burst of funding could be too little, too late, to make a meaningful difference this winter. We are already in November and on the cusp of what will be gruelling months ahead for both our workforce, and our patients.
“Further winter plans announced place too much emphasis on attendance avoidance – diverting people away from ED. While this is of course welcome, the crisis in which our EDs find themselves has not been caused by an increase in demand.
“The number of people attending our departments this summer was lower than it was in 2019, yet 20 times as many people this year waited 12 or more hours to be admitted, discharged or transferred.
“And we know this is where the harm lies for our patients in ED.
“The announcement is a good start at a time when the health service is about to enter what will be yet another very challenging winter. But the crisis in our Emergency Departments is taking a heavy toll on our members, and their colleagues.
“We need continued support and action from the government to address these deep-rooted long-term problems that are no longer confined to winter.”