The number of patients who waited in Scottish A&E for 24 hours or more in the first half of 2022 increased dramatically, according to figures obtained by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. The data, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, revealed that over 3,900 patients spent a day or more in A&E in the six months up to June this year, compared with only 15 patients during the same period in 2019. Between 2013 and 2018, only a handful of patients each year had to wait for such a period.
Dr John-Paul Loughrey, the vice president of the RCEM, said that the numbers were “completely unacceptable” and associated with patient harm and increased mortality. Doctors have described the rise as “shocking” and claimed that A&E performance is not where it needs to be, with no measures to retain staff, who were facing burnout and exhaustion.
The Scottish government’s winter resilience plan for the NHS announced in October pledged an additional £50m to the Scottish Ambulance Service to help deal with increased demand, as well as plans to extend ‘Hospital at Home’ care. However, doctors have criticised the plan and urged the government to take “meaningful action to avoid a repeat of last winter”. In addition, recent data revealed that Scotland’s winter death toll last year was the highest for more than 30 years.
The long wait times and delays at A&E centres have caused distress for patients, with Hayley Smith, whose husband Matt died in 2021 at the age of 33 from a brain tumour, describing every A&E trip as “absolutely terrifying”. Matt’s form of cancer caused frequent seizures, and Hayley says they were “constantly” in A&E as a result. They once waited 10 hours for an ambulance and then a further 13 “sat on a plastic chair” in the emergency department waiting to be seen
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More