Bed blocking and covid cases are contributing to poor performance at Paisley’s struggling Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Those are the claims of NHS bosses as the facility’s under-pressure casualty department notched up its worst ever performance since 2015 last week - the second worst in Scotland for the second time in three months.
And poorly Renfrewshire residents are once again being urged to avoid the Corsebar Road hospital’s A&E department, unless their illness is “very urgent or life threatening”.
The hospital has recorded some of the worst emergency department performances since current records began several times in recent months but figures show the buckling site has plunged to new lows.
It comes after Health Secretary Humza Yousaf visited the site just two weeks ago to hold talks with staff and management in a bid to iron out problems at the failing site.
But NHS data for the week ending March 13 shows that just 49.8 per cent of the 1,112 patients who attended A&E were treated in line with four hour targets.
The Scottish Government demands that 95 per cent of those attending emergency departments are treated, admitted or transferred within a four hour window.
The target has not been met at the RAH for months and has hardly been observed at other Scottish sites since covid took hold.
But performance at the Royal Alexandra has been particularly dismal.
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Some 558 patients waited more than four hours, the latest figures show, while 227 were waiting more than eight.
A total of 83 patients waited 12 hours or more.
An NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokesperson blamed the rise in covid cases for the latest dip in performance, saying: “Covid-19 is still very much with us.
“Our hospitals are near capacity, with significant numbers of Covid-19 positive patients on our wards with a diagnosis of 28 days or less.
“While the overall trend suggests the virus is less severe, and our ICUs remain relatively free from Covid-19 patients for the moment, it is still very transmissible.
“Large numbers of positive patients admitted to hospital – either as direct result of the virus, or admitted for another illness but having tested positive with no symptoms – is putting significant pressure on capacity and available bed numbers.
“This is having a knock-on effect at our A&E departments and assessment units.”
The spokesperson added: “The rise in patient numbers and the logistical challenges this brings to our teams is being further compounded by the difficulties we face due to delayed discharges, which we are working hard to resolve.
“An additional pressure is the challenge Covid-19 infection is creating across our workforce, with significant numbers absent as a result of the virus.”
And he urged residents to stay away from the site’s emergency department if possible, adding: “We are sorry if anyone experiences in a delay in being treated and we are reminding the public not to come to A&E unless suffering from a very urgent or life-threatening condition.”
Instead, anyone who needs urgent medical attention is urged to speak to their GP first, or, call NHS24 on 111.
We told last October how A&E waiting times had soared at the RAH’s A&E as the hospital recorded what was then the worst performance against targets for six years - with just 62.3 per cent of patients seen in line with the four hour timescale.
At the time, the figure was the worst recorded since February 2015.
Figures for the week ending August 1 2021, at 68 per cent, were then the worst at the hospital since winter 2017.
In December, the hospital notched up the second worst A&E performance in Scotland - with just 56.8 per cent of patients treated in line with the four hour target.
Only Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, also operated by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde - recorded a worse figure, with just 52.7 per cent of A&E patients there treated on time.
But even these dismal returns are dwarfed by the latest 49.8 per cent figure.
Staff leaders reported a “chronic” shortage of workers at the RAH last October.
In December they repeated warnings of a “dire” situation after it emerged that a single nurse - qualified for just one year - had been left in charge of more than 20 patients on a specialist gastro ward during a Saturday night shift.
And they said staff were “one their knees” after battling through the pandemic and the toll on staff sickness absence while bosses crammed in more patients than they believed staffing levels could safely cope with.
Their warnings prompted Paisley-based Labour MSP Neil Bibby to call on Scottish Government health supremo Mr Yousaf to visit the hospital and speak to staff reps first hand.
He finally appeared at the site to meet with managers and union reps two weeks ago.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said yesterday that the RAH is currently treating 113 covid patients who are 28 days or less from diagnosis.
Only fellow NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde-run site the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital notched up fractionally worse A&E performance in Scotland than the RAH in the most recent figures - with just 49.7 per cent of the 1,696 patients treated there within the four hour target.
Glasgow Royal Infirmary, the busiest site, saw 57.2 per cent of the 1,723 patients who passed through their A&E treated in line with the target.
The Scottish average for the week was 68.4 per cent.
Busy Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, run by NHS Lothian, saw 53.6 per cent of their 2,372 recorded casualty patients within target.
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