A&E performance above 95%

A&E performance for Scotland’s core accident and emergency departments for week ending 16 July has exceeded 95%.

Figures published today by ISD Scotland show that 95.3% of patients were seen, then subsequently admitted or discharged within four hours. This has improved from 94.5% in the previous week.

All core sites are currently running above 90% performance.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said:

“I am pleased to see this improved performance across Scotland’s core accident and emergency sites. I’d like to thank all the staff who are involved in this effort, not just in A&E, but also those elsewhere in the hospital and social care system who make sure that patients are able to flow through the system with minimum delay.

“Working with boards there has been a real focus in recent years on making accident and emergency departments as streamlined as possible, and reducing delayed discharge further along the chain. This has undoubtedly played a part in ensuring that Scotland’s A&Es have outperformed those in the rest of the UK for more than two years.

“Our six essential actions for unscheduled care, backed with £9 million of new investment this year, will continue to help us keep waits to a minimum.”

Background:

The six essential actions for improving unscheduled care are:

• Clinical focussed and empowered hospital management.
• Hospital capacity and patient flow realignment.
• Patient, rather than bed management.
• Medical and surgical processes arranged to improve patient flow through the unscheduled care pathway.
• Seven day services appropriately targeted to reduce variation in weekend and out of hours working
• Ensuring patients are optimally cared for in their own homes or a homely setting.