A&Es ‘in crisis’ amid winter freeze and flu admission surge

Emergency Departments in Scotland are struggling against the combined pressures of extreme weather and a rise in hospital admissions from flu.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has described the country’s health service as being “in the depth of a winter crisis” as Scotland braces itself against snow and ice.

Yesterday, after coming under increasing pressure regarding the condition of Emergency Care in Scotland, Health Secretary Neil Gray said A&E demands had been “exacerbated by higher than normal levels of influenza infection in the community”. Data released last week showed hospital admissions caused by flu increased by 12% in a week.

The Health Secretary’s comments come as data released yesterday by Public Health Scotland revealed last November 6,429 patients waited 12 hours or more in Emergency Departments – the highest proportion of 12 hour waits for any November since records began in 2011.

Dr Fiona Hunter, Vice Chair of RCEM Scotland said: “Today’s data, and every previous month’s data, shows just how much pressure Scottish EDs were under coming into this winter.

“The system was already under extreme pressure, and this huge flu surge and cold spell are likely to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

“But it cannot – and must not – be blamed as the sole cause of the crisis we are currently experiencing.

“My colleagues are working flat out in very difficult conditions with some departments nearing 400% capacity- four times as many patients as there are cubicle spaces for. We are running on hard work and goodwill, and our patients are receiving unacceptable, undignified and unsafe care in corridors and in the back of ambulances.

“The main issue is that we can’t move our patients who desperately need admission to a hospital bed in to wards or high dependency units. These wards have the highest level ever known of patients who are ready to be discharged but have no available social support to allow them to do so.

“We are predictably gridlocked, in the depth of a winter crisis, and our patients and staff are the ones suffering.”