Nearly 4,000 patients waited more than four hours at flagship hospital

Nearly 4,000 patients waited more than four hours at A&E in Scotland’s £850 million flagship hospital since it opened in May.

Earlier this week specialist support was given to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for the second time in four months. New analysis from Scottish Labour has found that since the hospital opened in May, 3,852 patients have spent over four hours in A&E – despite a SNP Government promise that patients shouldn’t wait longer than four hours. Scottish Labour Public Services spokesperson Jackie Baillie said:

“The NHS is the most precious institution we have. It cares for our children when they are sick, supports people when they need help and looks after our elderly relatives when they are at their most vulnerable. We need to do everything possible to protect our NHS.

NHS staff in Scotland work incredibly hard to deliver the care that Scots need, but it is clear that even at the new £850 million flagship hospital things are going wrong. Just last week we saw the hospital needing urgent specialist support for the second time in just four months. It’s clear that the hospital hasn’t been getting the long term resources it needs from the SNP Government.

The hospital struggled to hit the SNP’s A&E waiting time target in the middle of summer and autumn – the problems at the hospital need to be fixed now before winter comes.

Scottish Labour asked SNP Health Minister Shona Robison back in May to consider pausing the transfer of patients to ease the burden on the new hospital, but she said no. Now we see thousands of patients waiting longer than they should have to for care. It’s just not good enough and SNP Ministers must get a grip.

This is the reality of decisions made by the SNP Government in Edinburgh about our NHS. The SNP Government is guilty of squeezing health spending in Scotland harder than even the Tories in England.”

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