Murdo has raised concerns at the latest weekly A&E waiting times for Fife, saying that the poor statistics show that the beleaguered Health Minister is “clearly distracted” by the ongoing I-pad roaming charges scandal.
He was commenting following the release of the figures by Public Health Scotland, which reveal that the number of patients waiting to be seen within the target of four hours at A&E in Fife fell from 867 (for the week ending November 12) to 848 for the week ending November 19.
And the number of patients who had to wait more than four hours in the Kingdom’s A&E units increased from 391 to 455 during this period.
These figures mirror the national picture which shows that less than two thirds of people were seen within four hours in Scotland. The alarming data showed that only 63.5% of attendances at the country’s emergency departments in the week ending November 19 were seen within this timescale.
From 2015, Local Delivery Plan (LDP) Standards were set and agreed between the Scottish Government and NHS Boards. The current standard is for 95% of patients to wait no longer than four hours from arrival to admission, discharge or transfer for A&E treatment.
The latest statistics also highlight how 3,234 people waited longer than eight hours to be seen in Scotland’s A&E departments, amounting to 13.1% of all attendances.
Commenting, Murdo said: “These latest shocking A&E waiting time figures for Fife underline how the beleaguered Health Minister is clearly distracted by the ongoing investigation into his astronomical £11,000 roaming charges bill for his Parliamentary I-pad. Our party has called for Michael Matheson to be sacked over the sorry episode, but he is desperately clinging on to his job.
However, it is obvious that he is not properly focused on his job as these A&E waiting time statistics indicate.
“The A&E waiting time figures for Fife, and across the whole of Scotland, are consistently poor and indicate a health service in crisis under this SNP Government. The data released today (November 28) is a damning indictment for the SNP, which is unfortunately wrapped up in scandal and a forthcoming court case involving its former leader.
“To have the number of A&E patients in Fife who were seen within four hours decrease in the latest figures is very concerning indeed. These people deserve a lot better treatment than this but it appears our pleas to deal with this major issue have fallen on deaf ears with the SNP Government. They have a Health Minister with the biggest portfolio budget but who is too wrapped up in his I-pad roaming charges scandal while desperately clinging on to his job, when he should be addressing the major issue of A&E waiting times.”
