Colin Smyth MSP
South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has accused the Scottish Government of being in denial over the challenges facing the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway, after the latest Accident and Emergency Waiting times showed that the local NHS failed to hit the Government’s target for the twelve week in a row.
According to the latest figures published by ISD Scotland today (16 January) NHS Dumfries and Galloway had only 85.3% of patients who arrived at Accident and Emergency seen within the 4 hour target time and 6 patients last week had to wait more than 12 hours before being seen by a doctor. The current Government target is 95%
This was despite the fact that the local NHS have cancelled a number of operations and out patients clinics in a bid to tackle the current crisis.
Last week Nicola Sturgeon was forced to apologise for the excessive waiting times being faced by thousands of patients left waiting across Scotland.
Commenting on the latest figures Colin Smyth MSP said:
“Despite the best efforts of staff, once again we are seeing patient care affected by the current crisis in our NHS, as the Scottish Government go on the charm offensive to convince the people of Dumfries and Galloway that everything is fine and there are no problems.
Staff are doing an incredible job in our hospitals but the truth is, with an ever-increasing workload and resources failing to keep up with demand, they can only do so much.
For 12 weeks now we have seen waiting times in this area fall below target. There is only so many excuses the SNP can make before they come to realise that the austerity they have imposed upon the budgets of this area are directly affecting services.
There are only so many times they can blame black ice and the flu before people come to realise they simply cannot be trusted to run the NHS.”
Published 16 January 2018
NHS Performs – Weekly Update of Emergency Department Activity and Waiting Times Statistic’