An Audit Scotland report has revealed that Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy is missing its A & E treatment time standard NHS Scotland standards dictate that patients must be treated within 4 hours of arriving at A and E.
The Scottish Government had previously set an A & E target for 98% of patients to be seen within four hours but as a result of slipping standards reduced that to 95% last year. Victoria Hospital in Fife is averaging only 93.6% over the past year, dipping as low as 88% in December of 2013.
Across Scotland people are now waiting almost half an hour longer than they were five years ago, during a time when Scottish hospitals are witnessing the fastest declines in hospital bed numbers anywhere in the western world. The report showed that across Scotland in 2012/13 some 93.5 per cent of patients were treated within four hours, compared to 97.2 per cent in 2009.
Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser said:
“We need urgent action from the First Minister to tackle the growing A&E crisis not only in Fife but in wards up and down the country.
“The Scottish Government has had several years to get to grips with the amount of time people are waiting to be treated and has clearly failed.
“Doctors and Nurses are already at breaking point and resources are stretched too thin in Fife and the Scottish Government must intervene so that patients can be treated timeously.
“Scotland’s First Minister needs to get back to doing the day job rather than diverting all his efforts towards separating Scotland from the rest of the UK.”