Tuesday 5 November
Extremely long and dangerous wait times should serve as a ‘chilling warning’ to the Scottish government that the country’s Emergency Departments are on a ‘fast track to chaos’ this winter.
That’s the message from The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) Scotland as the latest data for Emergency Department performance for September 2024 is released.
The figures reveal it was the second worst September since records began in 2011 for patients experiencing four, eight, and 12-hour wait times.
Published today (Tuesday 5 November) by Public Health Scotland, the data shows that in A&Es in Scotland in September, 5,212 patients waited 12 hours or longer before being admitted, discharged, or transferred.
They also reveal just how much long waits have increased since the 2010s.
Since September 2017, for example, the numbers of people waiting four hours or more has increased by 4.5 times (8,709 to 39,262), eight hours or more by 19 times (666 to 12,660) and 12 hours or more by 46 times (113 to 5,212). This was despite the number of attendances decreasing by 0.3% in the same period.
One of the key reasons people end up waiting extreme amounts of time in EDs is because there are no in-patient beds available.
The lack of ward beds is often caused because people who are well enough to go home cannot do so due to a lack of social care support.
So called ‘delayed discharges’ meant that in September, there were 59,033 days spent in hospital by people who did not medically need to be there – equivalent to 161 years.
Dr John-Paul Loughrey, RCEM Vice President for Scotland said: “September’s performance figures offer a chilling insight into the brutal winter storm that our members and their colleagues, as well as patients, are set to experience, when the inevitable spike in demand hits.
“Imagine putting on your scrubs every day, knowing that as soon as you walk through the doors of your A&E, that you will be met by the scene of patients lining the corridors of your department, who have endured extremely long waits, with all the risk that brings. This is the reality of being an Emergency Medicine clinician and this situation will only be exacerbated during the coldest months to come.
“The Scottish government must act now and re-think its winter planning to ensure emergency patients receive safe, dignified and timely care.
“The Health Secretary recently visited A&E at University Hospital Monklands and saw firsthand the crisis that we are experiencing every day.
“We hope this visit will be a catalyst for change and I look forward to meeting with Neil Gray next week to discuss how, together, we can #ResuscitateEmergencyCare in Scotland.”
A graphical representation of the data can be found here.
The full data set can be found on the RCEM website.
