More than 230 people have died in Scotland this year because of long delays in overcrowded emergency departments.
Latest figures show record waiting times in hospital accident and emergency (A&E) departments for the twelfth week in a row. Last night Dr John Thomson, head of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, said patients were dying because hospitals were so full.
The college has calculated that 231 excess deaths have occurred this year as people have queued on trolleys because of a shortage of beds on wards.
When patients are left waiting in emergency departments health staff have to care for them at the same time as dealing with new cases as they arrive. Ambulances also have to wait longer to transfer patients, sometimes sitting outside hospitals for more than an hour and unable to attend new 999 calls.
Waiting times in Scotland’s A&Es began deteriorating early in the summer to levels more typically seen in winter and the percentage waiting more than the four-hour target have been at record levels from the week of Sunday, August 8.
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Thomson said: “The consistent fall in performance is seriously worrying. What we are seeing — ambulance handover delays; dangerous crowding; long stays — put patient safety at risk and can lead to harm or avoidable deaths.
“Data show that for every 67 patients waiting eight to 12 hours, one of them will come to avoidable harm — therefore we can estimate that in Scotland between January and August 2021 there have been 231 excess deaths directly caused by a long wait due to a crowded emergency department.”
The number of patients arriving in A&Es fell for the week ending Sunday October 24. But the percentage treated and discharged or admitted to a bed within four hours fell to 69.6 per cent — the first time it has dropped below 70 per cent under the current recording system. Almost 2,000 people were stuck for more than eight hours and 630 spent more than 12 hours waiting.
Thomson said the problem was due to poor patient flow through the hospital. This includes patients occupying beds who could be discharged but are waiting for community care packages. Thomson said health boards must safely expand the capacity available for patients, as long as they could find the staff to cover the extra beds.
“It is a very difficult time, and we are preparing for a gruelling winter,” he said. “The past five months of performance figures suggest that more deterioration is set to come.” He said the Scottish government must set out “a long-term workforce plan”.
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Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Liberal Democrat’s health spokesman, said: “This is not safe. Waiting times like these put people in danger. Sometimes, they will prove deadly. If people hold off asking for help, small problems will become much worse. The ripple effects of this emergency care crisis will roll on for years to come.”
A&Es in Scotland have reported a surge in seriously ill patients who need a hospital bed. Factors thought to be responsible include stress and people being sedentary during lockdown.
