The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has asked ‘where are the tangible plans for Emergency Care?’ after Scotland’s A&Es experienced the worst February on record for performance.
The figures, released yesterday (1 April 2025) by Public Health Scotland comes just a day after the Scottish government revealed its ‘operational improvement plan’ which RCEM says ‘missed the mark’ in tackling extreme and dangerous long stays in A&Es.
The new PHS data shows that in A&Es in Scotland in February, 6,072 patients waited 12 hours or longer before being admitted, discharged or transferred.
They also reveal just how much long waits have increased since the 2010s.
Since February 2018, for example, the number of people waiting four hours or more in major EDs has increased by 3.4 times (10,979 to 37,274) eight hours or more by 13 times (1,023 to 13,638) and 12 hours or more by almost 35 times (174 to 6,072).
Patients are often experiencing these extreme long stays on trolleys in corridors due to the lack of available in-patient beds.
People in these beds are often stuck in hospital, despite being well enough to be discharged, because there is no appropriate social care support.
So called ‘delayed discharges’ meant there was an average of 1,986 patients in hospital each day, waiting to be discharged, even though they are well enough to leave. This is the highest number for the month of February since 2016, when guidelines changes.
Responding to the data, Dr Fiona Hunter, Vice President of RCEM Scotland said: “Scotland’s Health Secretary has said he is ‘encouraged’ by a weekly improvement to the four-hour target for admission, treatment or discharge – but our members and their colleagues certainly don’t feel encouraged when you look at the bigger picture.
“Across the board – four, eight and 12 hour waits – were the worst on record for the month of February.
“This should sound alarm bells to politicians and galvanise them to act before A&Es delve into an even deeper crisis.
“This data comes hot on the heels of the government’s NHS improvement plan, which did little to reassure burnout Emergency Medicine clinicians that they won’t be treating patients, who have endured a stay on trolley in a corridor for 12 hours or more, in the weeks, months and years to come.
“It was a golden opportunity, and it missed the mark.
“It’s left us asking, where are the tangible plans for Emergency Care?
“Time is ticking for the government to act and #ResuscitateEmergencyCare.”
Health Secretary Neil Gray has set out how the Scottish Government plans to improve access to treatment, reduce waiting times and shift the balance of care from hospitals to primary care through the publication of the Operational Improvement Plan.
Through the additional £200 million investment contained in the Budget to reduce waiting times and improve flow through hospital, we will create 150,000 extra appointments and procedures using greater use of regional and national working.
By introducing a seven-day service in radiology, using mobile scanning units and additional recruitment, 95% of referrals will be seen within six weeks by March 2026, reducing backlogs in MRI, CT, ultrasound and endoscopy procedures.
To improve flow in acute hospitals and support increases in community care, we will expand Hospital at Home to at least 2,000 beds by the end of 2026, meaning the service, which provides hospital level care in the comfort of the patients home, will become the biggest hospital in Scotland.
By this summer there will be specialist staff in frailty teams in every A&E department in Scotland. Flow Navigation Centres, which direct patients to the most appropriate service for their condition, will be able to refer patients to more services, reducing the number of people who have to wait in A&E.
Investment in primary care will make it easier for people to see a doctor, dentist, optometrist or community pharmacist, and £10.5 million will be invested in general practice to take targeted action to prevent heart disease and frailty.
Digital services will be expanded to modernise services and improve efficiency, with the Digital Front Door app launching in Lanarkshire in December. This launch will be followed by a national roll-out in 2026, allowing people to securely access their hospital appointments, receive communications and find local services. Over time it will be expanded to include social care and community health services.
On a visit to Kirklands Hospital’s Flow Navigation Centre, Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “This plan details how the Scottish Government will deliver a more accessible NHS, with reductions to long-waits and the pressures we currently see. It shows how we will use the £21.7 billion health and social care investment in the 2025-26 Budget to deliver significant improvements for patients.
“We want to increase the number of appointments, speed up treatment and make it easier to see a doctor. By better using digital technology, we will embrace innovation and increase efficiencies.
“This plan is ambitious but realistic, and builds on the incredible work of our amazing health and social care staff across our health boards, to deliver real change.”
SCOTLAND TO LEAD NEW INTERNATIONAL CANCER “SUPERGROUP”
Cancer Research UK and partners today committed £5.5m to form a world-leading research team tasked with making personalised medicine a reality for people with bowel cancer.
Led by Scottish scientists, the CRC-STARS initiative (Colorectal Cancer — Stratification of Therapies through Adaptive Responses), will bring together more than 40 bowel cancer experts to find new and kinder ways to tackle a cancer increasingly being diagnosed in younger people.
Bowel cancer kills 16,800 people in the UK (1,700 in Scotland) every year and is increasingly being diagnosed in younger people.*A recent study by the American Cancer Society published in The Lancet Oncology showed early-onset bowel cancer rates in adults aged 25-49 are rising in 27 of 50 countries studied and are rising faster in young women in Scotland and England than in young men.**
Harnessing the expertise of researchers at universities and institutes across the UK, Spain, Italy and Belgium, the five-year project will aim to better understand how different bowel cancers respond to current treatments, why certain bowel cancers spread, and whether scientists can predict which treatments will work for individual patients.
Led by Professor Owen Sansom of the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute in Glasgow and University of Glasgow, along with co-leads Professor Jenny Seligmann of the University of Leeds and Professor Simon Leedham of the University of Oxford, this personalised medicine approach will see detailed information about an individual’s cancer – not just the area of the body where the cancer started – used to help inform decisions on diagnosis and treatment.
Personalised medicine is a growing area of cancer care and research.
Director of the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute and CRC-STARS co-lead, Professor Owen Sansom, said: “With more and more younger people being diagnosed with bowel cancer, it’s vital we remain vigilant and keep trying to understand new causes and new reasons for cancer.
“Step by step, day by day, we’re discovering new ways to prevent, detect and treat bowel cancer and save lives, but there’s more to discover, and this new support from our funders will allow us to take bold steps towards better understanding bowel cancer and how to beat it.”
Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK.*** Despite this, treatment options remain limited, particularly for patients who are diagnosed at later stages of the disease. Scotland is disproportionately affected by the disease with around 4,000 people being diagnosed each year.
First Minister John Swinney, who visited the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute today (Monday 31 March), said:“I very much welcome this multi-national research project and hope it will lead to more personalised care for people with bowel cancer. The fact it is being co-led by scientists in Glasgow is recognition of the expertise we have here in Scotland.
“With studies suggesting bowel cancer diagnoses rates are increasing for younger adults, it is vitally important to support research that will improve our understanding of how the disease progresses and develop new approaches to its treatment.”
Rectal cancer survivor Tracy Farrell, 53, from Glasgow welcomed the new investment into colorectal cancer.The fire service cook from Balornock was diagnosed aged 50 after seeing blood in her poo after going to the toilet.
She said: “It was the first time I’d had blood, I had no symptoms, no pain and my GP said because I was so young and had no family history of bowel cancer then she hoped it wouldn’t be that.
“There were no red flags for me so I was considered low priority but they were able to get me a colonoscopy within just three weeks due to a cancellation.
“They told me that day I had a tumour. I went from one day having nothing to the next day having cancer. I couldn’t even bring myself to say I had cancer. It was such a shock.
“At the time I was looking after my 14-year-old nephew Reece because his mother, my sister, had died from an aneurysm and I just thought he can’t lose me as well. He was like the baby I never had.”
Tracy was given chemotherapy and radiotherapy to shrink the tumour and the treatment worked so well she didn’t need surgery and now has been cancer free for three years.
She said: “I was lucky the cancer hadn’t spread and that it was caught early.”
With the support of her mum Kathleen, great friends and firefighter colleagues, Tracy is now doing well and nephew Reece is 18 and at college.
She took part in a research project by offering samples for scientists to study.
She said: “I found it a great help. It allowed me to have extra scans so we could see the treatment was working.
“But taking part in the study was amazing – to know you are helping them find out more about this disease so they can find new ways to tackle it feels very rewarding.”
The team will work on combining experimental, pre-clinical and clinical data to predict cancer progression and tailor new therapeutic approaches specific to each patient’s characteristics. It is hoped this work will the development of drug resistance and improve the response to treatments, such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy, hopefully improving outcomes for patients.
Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, Michelle Mitchell, said: “For more than 100 years, Cancer Research UK-funded scientists have been working to beat bowel cancer, and this project is one of the most comprehensive for bowel cancer that we have ever supported.
“Together with our funding partners – the Bowelbabe Fund, Bjorn and Inger Saven and the FCAECC – we can empower the CRC-STARS team to speed up the development of personalised treatment for people living with bowel cancer, bringing us closer to a world where people live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”
The team will also build on the tools, resources and discoveries developed by existing bowel cancer research collaborations (e.g. ACRCelerate) and Cancer Research UK’s National Biomarker Centre and analyse data from Cancer Research UK-supported colorectal cancer studies such as the FOxTROT, TREC and PRIME-RT clinical trials.***
Scientific Director at the FCAECC, Dr Marta Puyol, said: “This project will not only help us to better understand the landscape of bowel cancer in a collaborative and multidisciplinary manner but will also allow us to place a strong emphasis on patient needs, accelerating the translation of results into clinical practice.”
How much do you know about bipolar disorder? Today, on World Bipolar Day we’re raising awareness for this sometimes-misunderstood mental health condition.
Bipolar disorder involves extreme changes in mood. These symptoms can be challenging to manage.
Because the symptoms of bipolar disorder vary for everyone, it can take a long time to get a diagnosis. If you have extreme changes in your mood that last a long time, and are having an effect on your life, relationships, or work then consider seeing your GP. Remember, help is available to manage bipolar disorder:
Bipolar UK has a mood scale and diary and more information that may be helpful.
Mind has more information on the different types of bipolar, and how to manage them.
A Scottish Government agreement with GPs to improve general practice has failed to deliver on several of its commitments, says spending watchdog Audit Scotland.
The 2018 General Medical Service (GMS) contract aimed to address the financial pressures and growing workloads facing GPs, and to improve patients’ access to care.
However, seven years on:
the estimated number of whole-time equivalent GPs has fallen
pressure on general practice has increased
proposals to support GP teams with more nurses, physiotherapists and other specialists have moved more slowly than planned
and people report finding it more difficult to access care.
The Scottish Government has not set out how it intends to invest in general practice over the medium-term. And it is unlikely to hit its target of 800 more GPs by 2027. Spending on general practice as a proportion of overall NHS spending has fallen slightly in recent years. And between 2021/22 and 2023/24 spending decreased by 6 per cent in real terms, putting more pressure on GP practices.
National data for primary care remains inadequate. There is a lack of robust information about general practice demand, workload, workforce, and quality of care. This limits the Scottish Government’s ability to say whether the GMS contract changes represent value for money or have improved patient care.
Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, said: “The pandemic pushed back plans for general practice. But the new delivery deadlines that were put in place were missed, and there’s not been enough transparency about progress since then.
“The Scottish Government needs to clarify its plan for general practice and set out the actions, timescales and costs to deliver it.”
Lothian MSP Sarah Boyack has secured confirmation over the timetable for the new eye pavilion.
Deputy Chief Exec of NHS Lothian, Jim Crosbie revealed that the new eye pavilion would be delivered in 6 years during a roundtable hosted by Ms Boyack.
Ms Boyack secured the meeting following her open letter to Scottish Health Secretary, Neil Gray on the lack of clarity over the new hospital’s progress.
The roundtable was attended by MSPs from across Edinburgh and the Lothians as well as stakeholders from sight loss organisations and patient groups.
NHS Lothian promised to continue to keep MSPs and stakeholders updated about progress and the health board also committed to proper consultation with the sight loss community.
The current Eye Pavilion has been shut since last year since asbestos was discovered in the building. This has caused major disruption for those in the sight loss community who rely on the hospital.
An organisation of patients supporting a new hospital, KEEP, were present at the roundtable and highlighted some of the difficulties for patients trying to access basic facilities since the closure of the current pavilion.
Speaking after the meeting, Ms Boyack said: “I am glad to finally have some clarity of when Edinburgh will finally see a new eye hospital.
“However, I can’t shake the feeling that this facility is way overdue.
“The current facility has not been fit for purpose since 2014, on the current timetable patients will be waiting another 6 before getting the standard of services they deserve.
“I will continue to hold the Scottish Government’s feet to the fire over this until the Eye Pavilion has been delivered.”
Decline in the number of specialist ASN teachers to a record low
More than doubling in the number of pupils with additional support needs since 2014
The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC), an alliance of leading providers of specialist care and education to vulnerable children and young people, has raised concerns over cuts in specialist support being provided to those with additional support needs (ASN).
The call comes as new figures from the Scottish Government’s annual teacher census indicate that the number of specialist ASN teachers has fallen to a record low of 2,837 in 2024.1
In contrast, the number of those pupils with ASN has soared to a record high, now amounting to 40.5 per cent of the pupil population. 2 This includes those with mental health problems, learning disability, autism and dyslexia.
These numbers have been increasing for years. Indeed, more than doubling(102.4 per cent) over the last decade to 284,448 pupils, a rise from 140,501 in 2014, when those with ASN represented 20.8 per cent of all pupils.
Between 2014 and 2024 the number of ASN teachers (publicly funded primary, secondary, special and centrally employed) has fallen from 3,077 to 2,837, a record low and a decrease of 240 teachers.
In 2014, while each ASN teacher was supporting 40 pupils with ASN, by 2024 this figure had risen to each teacher now supporting 100 such pupils.
Against a background of spending cuts and reduction in specialist support, the SCSC has called for greater resourcing from both the Scottish Government and local authorities to ensure that those with ASN, who are disproportionately drawn from poorer neighbourhoods, are getting the care and support that they need.
The coalition has also raised concerns about the effectiveness of a presumption of mainstreaming, meaning that all pupils are educated in a mainstream educational environment unless exceptional circumstances apply, without the necessary support.
A spokesperson for the SCSC commented: “It is vital that those with ASN get the care and support they need. This is also key if we are to genuinely close the educational attainment gap as we know that those with ASN are disproportionately drawn from poorer neighbourhoods.
“With cuts in support, including in the number of specialist teachers, it is going to be extremely challenging to reduce the current inequalities faced by those with ASN.
“While we also support the presumption of mainstreaming, which means that all children and young people are educated in a mainstream educational environment unless exceptional circumstances apply, it is clearly difficult to see how this is functioning properly given the fall in specialist support and increase in the number of those with ASN.
“The Scottish Government and local authorities need to work together to provide the necessary resourcing to address the needs of those children and young people with ASN, who represent some of the most vulnerable individuals in our society. “
“The Haven passes the baton to SAMH, leaving behind a wonderful legacy, proving Scotland’s mental health crisis can be reversed.” – Roslyn Neely – CEO, Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity
A walk-in wellbeing and resilience pilot, developed to tackle Scotland’s mental health crisis will come to an end in the summer, after demonstrating unquestionably that early intervention can reduce mental health challenges among children and young people.
The Haven opened at The Fraser Centre, Tranent in September 2023 under Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity’s ‘No Time To Wait’ strategy. It later moved to bigger premises in Haddington due to demand, and since opening the service has attracted 3,461 visits. Of these, 2,041 were children and young people and 1,420 were their affected family members.
Roslyn Neely, CEO of Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity said: “We are incredibly sad that our pilot wellbeing and resilience service is coming to an end, but that was always our intention, as a charity we couldn’t fund this forever.
“However we will close our doors with a huge sense of pride in what The Haven has achieved and a promise to all families receiving support that we will not turn our backs on them, we will continue to provide vital assistance, ensuring that the care and connection established through The Haven remain a core part of our work.”
Scotland’s national mental health charity, Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH), has recently announced The Nook, a network of mental health support hubs, which will build on the foundations laid by ECHC and the team at The Haven, marking a significant step forward for mental health support in Scotland, and beyond.
Roslyn Neelycontinued: “We are delighted that our work will now contribute to a long-term, sustainable national approach to Scotland’s mental health crisis.
“The Haven passes the baton to SAMH, leaving behind a wonderful legacy, proving Scotland’s mental health crisis can be reversed, and we celebrate the fact that a major organisation like SAMH is stepping in to continue this important work.
“Their ability to advocate for long-term government support means that children’s mental health remains firmly on the national agenda, and we wholeheartedly support this.”
The Haven is a groundbreaking two-year pilot which has successfully supported hundreds of families who have a child struggling with their mental health. Critically, it uses a walk-in format with no waiting lists.
The Haven takes a unique whole family approach, supporting not just the individual struggling with mental health challenges, but their parents, grandparents, siblings and carers.
Scotland’s first Festival of Movement will soon come to Linlithgow! We are delighted to now reveal the full programme for the day.
Join us across Linlithgow, from the West Lothian Cycle Route to The Cross, on Saturday 29 March for a free, fun-filled day of opportunities to get moving, from in-line skating to led cycles, as well as talks, discussions and creative workshops for all ages and abilities.
For Debt Awareness Week, we’re highlighting how debt affects mental health – and the support that is available to help.
Throughout the cost-of-living-crisis many people have had to turn to lenders and may be struggling to keep up with their repayments. The mental health toll can be really challenging, with increased feelings of anxiety keeping you up at night or making it harder to enjoy your relationships. It can make existing mental health problems like depression worse and all together, feel overwhelming.
The mental health effects of debt can make navigating it an even more isolating and lonely experience. It’s important to remember that you are not alone, and that there is support available to you.
Want to know more? Join us for our Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ 26-28 March r/ukpersonalfinance. We’ll be joined by StepChange to answer all your questions on mental health and debt.
GRANTON INFORMATION CENTRE: FEEDBACK SURVEY
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Scotland’s first Festival of Movement will soon come to Linlithgow! We are delighted to now reveal the full programme for the day.
