Murdo says “it is time” that the SNP Government acted to address the number of patients waiting to be seen at Fife’s Accident and Emergency (A & E) department.
Figures released earlier this week by Public Health Scotland (PHS) show that 91 people waited more than eight hours to be seen at the emergency department at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, for the week ending May 7, with 442 having to wait more than the SNP target of four hours.
These figures were an increase on the previous week (ending April 30), when 78 patients waited more than eight hours and 371 waited more than four hours.
The data from PHS also shows that 20 people waited more than 12 hours to be seen at the A & E in Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, in the week ending May 7 compared to eight the previous week.
Commenting, Murdo Fraser MSP said: “These shocking figures sum up how bad the situation is for patients waiting to be seen at Fife’s A & E department. Looking at the statistics here, it is obvious that too many people are having to wait far too long to be seen for medical treatment at the emergency department, and this is not good enough.
“The data underlines that there has been no real improvement or progress made here in trying to tackle the number of people waiting at the emergency department in Fife – instead things are just as bad. There has been a consistent trend where patients are having to wait more than eight hours – sometimes more than 12 – to be seen. Some of them could well be in a lot of pain, having maybe broken a bone in a fall or suffered a bad cut through an accident.”
Murdo continued: “First Minister Humza Yousaf left our NHS in a very poor state when he was Health Secretary and Michael Matheson appears to be doing no better in the role. It is very disappointing that the statistics for people waiting at Fife’s A & E continue to be concerning and it is time for the SNP Government to act to tackle this alarming issue.
“We need to see more investment by the SNP Government in our NHS, instead of them wasting money by taking on the UK Government in a court battle over the controversial Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill. The people of Fife deserve much better than this.”
The SNP Government’s target is that 95% of patients be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of visiting an A & E department. It has not been met nationally since July 2020.
