Thousands wait more than half a day for treatment
The Scottish Government must make tackling Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding a political priority – as hospitals continue to take a battering in summer.
That’s the message from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine following the publication of Public Health Scotland’s latest ED performance statistics.
The figures, covering June 2026, showed that almost one in 20 patients (or a total of 6,023) waited in a major ED more than 12 hours before being discharged, admitted or transferred.
Meanwhile, the proportion of patients entering and exiting the ED within four hours was the lowest of any June on record.
Dr Fiona Hunter, Scotland Vice President at the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “The pressure facing Scottish Emergency Departments this summer is unsustainable. We are seeing overcrowding in the month of June which would have previously been unthinkable.
“Across the country, record numbers of patients are stuck in our departments for hours upon hours because the entire system is clogged.
“The human cost of this must not be ignored: these are extremely sick and injured people who have come to us at a vulnerable time of need. Many of them need a hospital bed, but what they instead receive is a 12-hour stint on a trolley in a crowded, bright and noisy ED.
“Our staff have to look patients in the eye every day and explain that they are in for a long stay. It’s an unacceptable and, frankly, embarrassing state of affairs and a far cry from what was promised by the new Scottish Government in its first 100 days in power.”
The stats also showed that across June, there was a daily average of 1,946 beds being occupied in hospital wards by patients who were medically fit to leave – but who had not been discharged. This represents a lack of improvement on summer 2025, where delayed discharge figures broke records.
RCEM set out, in its State of Emergency Medicine in Scotland report earlier this year, the links between delayed discharges, ED overcrowding and, ultimately, excess patient deaths.
“Delayed discharge is crucial to tackling this crisis. If wards could move medically fit patients out of beds in good time, it would significantly ease congestion in A&E.
“This should be a priority among policymakers but, to date, they have let us down.
“It’s been almost three months since the election and the government has had plenty of time to act on this year-round crisis in our EDs. Today’s numbers are further proof that the current approach is not working.
“I call on Angela Constance, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, to engage with us – and other Royal Colleges – to reform the ‘back door’ of our hospitals and, ultimately, save lives.”
