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NHS Grampian praised for A&E performance

Shona Robison said so-called bed blocking remained an issue in the Scottish NHS
Shona Robison said so-called bed blocking remained an issue in the Scottish NHS

NHS Grampian has been praised by Health Secretary Shona Robison after posting “significantly improved” A&E waiting times.

Nearly every patient seen at the health board’s casualty departments over the last two weeks was dealt with inside four hours.

Just 128 patients had to wait more than four hours to be admitted, transferred or discharged, despite the period being recognised as one of the year’s busiest.

All but 0.2% of patients visiting NHS Grampian’s A&E departments were dealt with within eight hours.

Last night, John Thomson, clinical director for emergency medicine at the health board, said the figures reflected the success of recent public information campaigns.

He said: “We hope that the recent performance against the four-hour standard of NHS Grampian is evidence that people are taking heed of our ‘Know Who To Turn To’ campaign to ensure that the emergency department is used appropriately and only when emergency or urgent treatment is needed.

“Over the last two weeks we’ve been able to ensure that 97.2% and 95.4% of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, which is well above the national average and especially noteworthy at this time of year.

“It is also real and tangible evidence that selecting the right service not only ensures you receive the right treatment in the shortest possible time, it also helps the NHS run efficiently, freeing-up emergency services for those who need them most.

“Our good performance can also be credited to great efforts from all of our staff and the work that went into preparing for winter.

“We also have planned for additional resources to be available to cope with the additional demand winter traditionally presents.

“We are confident that with the continued support of the public we will be able to continue to build on this performance.”

Ms Robison, had earlier praised the health board, along with NHS Borders, for its improved statistics.

She said: “NHS Borders and NHS Grampian must be congratulated for significant improvement, with rises in performance – 12.1 percentage points and 9.5 percentage points respectively.

“This isn’t just a short-lived improvement for one week – in fact our NHS staff have delivered sustained progress on the four-hour performance since May 2015.”