Waiting times at Paisley’s RAH have been slammed for “going in the wrong direction” as A&E figures slump yet again.
More than 1,700 people were not seen within the Scottish Governments target of four hours from the period between January 1 and February 12, according to new data released by Public Health Scotland.
Just 42 per cent of patients at the Corseford Road hospital were seen within the four hour time period.
This is lower than the current national average of 64.8 per cent across all health boards during the same period.
The new data shows a drastic decline in figures within just two weeks at the RAH, with data on January 28 showing that 81.5 per cent of those presenting at the emergency department were seen within four hours.
The following weeks of February 5 and 12, however, show this has slipped to 66.9 and 65.9 per cent, respectively.
The worst figures recorded were on January 8, in which 15 per cent of patients waited more than 12 hours to be seen – eight hours more than the targeted time.
Meanwhile, just 41 per cent of the 1,000 people presented at the emergency department were seen within four hours.
The Scottish Government’s target is for 95 per cent to be seen within four hours.
This has not occurred at the RAH since the week ending July 26, 2020.
While there has been an improvement since December, in which only 38 per cent of patients were seen within the target time, the figures have been slammed by MSP Neil Bibby who says the ongoing crisis is continuing to put lives at risk and put hospital staff in an “impossible position”.
The Paisley MSP for West Scotland said figures are going back in the “wrong direction”.
He said: “I am of course pleased to see an improvement in A&E wait times at the RAH over recent months, not least from the shocking nadir reached in December of just 38 per cent of patients being seen within four hours. But in recent weeks the figures have again being going in the wrong direction - and a third of patients still waiting over four hours to be seen at A&E is hardly a record for Humza Yousaf to be proud of.
“No one doubts the commitment and dedication of our fantastic RAH staff. But they have for too long been placed in an impossible position by a Health Secretary who has presided over unprecedented failure across our NHS - and who now seeks for that failure to be rewarded with promotion to the top job.
“Scotland deserves better, and our NHS needs a minister totally focused on the job at hand.
“Only Labour is offering the real change that Scotland, and our NHS, needs.”
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf previously said the RAH would get a share of £50million allocated to health boards to drive down waiting times in emergency departments.
He said the urgent and unscheduled care collaborative programme will see people offered scheduled, urgent appointments to avoid long waits in A&E.
But he added that a number of setbacks had impacted the figures.
He said: “Pandemic backlogs, inflation costs and Brexit influencing staff shortages have all contributed to make this winter the most challenging the NHS has ever faced. Extraordinary rises in flu and increases in covid and Strep A have heightened pressure on already stretched services.
“We are doing everything we can to help the health service through the remainder of the most challenging winter in its history.
“Our resilience committee is monitoring the situation in emergency departments extremely closely and we remain in daily contact with health boards.”
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