Too Many Waiting Too Long in A&E
Too many patients are waiting too long in A&E wards in Lanarkshire according to Mark Griffin MSP.
Figures released today show that 27 patients waited over 8 hours in Accident and Emergency in the week ending 6th September, with 24 people waiting more than 8 hours at Wishaw General Hospital. As a consequence, NHS Lanarkshire alone accounts for 40% of all A&E patients who waited more than 8 hours in Scotland.
A few weeks ago NHS Lanarkshire classed staffing at the three A&E departments in NHS Lanarkshire as either ‘high risk’ or ‘very high risk’
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Mark said:
“The Scottish Government have presided over cut, after cut to local NHS services in our communities, which has heaped pressure on hospitals like Monklands, Wishaw an Hairmyres, which are already facing a staffing crisis.
“We are barely out of summer and an unacceptable number of patients are waiting too long in A&E. I have long called for the Scottish Government and NHS Lanarkshire to reinstate services we have lost locally. This will ease the pressure on A&E and other vital services which have been centralised at the acute centres.
"The Scottish Government needs to get a grip on this before more patients are made to suffer."