Tag: long waits in A & E

RCEM: “Crying out for help”

Dire state of A&E should be top of the Scottish Election agenda as record numbers experience long waits

As thousands of patients each month in Scotland are forced to wait more than half a day in Emergency Departments (ED) before being discharged, transferred or admitted, whoever forms the next Scottish Government must make this healthcare crisis an emergency.  That’s the key message from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine following the publication of new ED performance data from Public Health Scotland.  

A total of 7,967 patients, or one in 13, people who attended a major (type 1) ED in Scotland in February waited 12 or more hours before being admitted, discharged or transferred. 

That’s an unacceptable proportion – and the worst of any February on record. In February 2025, the figure stood 1,895 lower, which was already dangerously high.  

Less than a decade ago, in February 2019, just 344 patients waited that long across the entire month, despite more people attending EDs.  

Dr Fiona Hunter, RCEM Vice President for Scotland, said: “Long waits in EDs are dangerous for patients and, for the sickest patients who require admission into a ward, are associated with increased risk of death. 

“The state of our departments is utterly dire. This winter has left our members, and the departments they work in, on their knees. We are crying out for help.” 

Driving this breakdown in patient flow are inefficiencies and blockages throughout the system. One of the greatest causes is delayed discharges. 

PHS’s new data showed that in February, a daily average of 1,984 patients were occupying hospital beds despite being medically fit to leave.  

Dr Hunter continued: “If the ‘back door’ blockages in our hospital, causing patients to be stuck in beds they do not need, it would ease pressure across the system – particularly in ED. 

“Addressing the elephant in the room, next month’s elections: we call on all political parties to bring patient flow to the top of the agenda. 

“We need whoever forms the next Scottish Government to tackle delayed discharge, end ED overcrowding and help us make the abhorrent practice of corridor care a thing of the past.”  

Latest figures also showed that, for February 2026:  

  • 16,041 (one in six patients) waited eight or more hours to be admitted, discharged or transferred in a major ED 
  • The proportion of patients waiting less than the target of four hours stood at 62.4%, far lower than the 95% system target 
  • 105,647 people attended ED, a slight increase compared to last February, but a reduction compared to February 2019, when patient flow was substantially better. 

‘Heartbreaking’: Almost 900 excess deaths from long A&E waits as state of Scotland’s hospital system laid bare

Responding to analysis from the Scottish Liberal Democrats, which suggested that there were 871 deaths in Emergency Departments (EDs) associated with a 12 or more hour wait for admission, Dr Fiona Hunter, Royal College of Emergency Medicine Vice President for Scotland, said: “These harrowing figures show that something must change in the approach to fixing the crisis in our EDs.  

“Heartbreaking doesn’t cover it. Each of these 871 people may have had families and friends who would have had to face the devastating reality that their loved one died not because they were too sick to treat, but because our hospitals don’t have the capacity to look after them properly.  

“Patients enduring these long waits are often the sickest or most injured, in need of further care on a ward. But a lack of beds, driven in large part by delayed discharges, meant they had to wait in A&E – and this can go on for hours and hours.  

“Almost 900 people may have paid the ultimate price for this complete breakdown in hospital flow. 

“Last year, RCEM published figures for 2024, which suggested there were 818 excess deaths associated with 12 hour waits in EDs. Today’s figures suggest that the problem is getting worse, not better.  

“Whoever forms the next government cannot ignore this problem. The numbers speak for themselves: more people will die, who otherwise would go home to their families, if overcrowding and long waits in ED aren’t fixed. 

“Addressing the ‘back door’ blockage of hospitals must be a priority for all political parties. Only then will the needless and agonising waits, and the avoidable deaths they cause, stop.  

“These are fixable issues and we encourage all political parties to make this a priority. Lives are at stake.”