In August 2021, NHS Scotland’s A&E department’s saw 77.8% within 4 hours.
In the same period, NHS England saw, on average, only 66.2% and NHS Wales saw only 60.1%.
NHS Scotland is thus 17.5% faster (11.6% of 66.2) than England and 26.5% faster than Wales.
The real gap with England is probably even greater as NHS England cheats. NHS England starts the clock again after patients are admitted while NHS Scotland counts from arrival in A&E.
Sources:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/
https://inews.co.uk/news/health/nhs-england-covering-up-true-scale-of-12-hour-hospital-waits-1335856
Talking-up Scotland 
Its not only NHS England that cheats.
BBC Hootsmon and all the rest of the “Scottish” media cheat as well.
Cheat, lie, deflect, mislead—-ITS WHAT THEY DO!
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Do we have booked appointments at A&E? NHS England does.
I see that, in the same data source you used for NHS England, they only “achieved” 82.5% within 4 hours for booked appointments at Type 1 hospitals (major A&E’s), versus 77.8% for all A&E visits in Scotland.
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Some day the ‘Scottish’ Opposition Parties and the ‘Scottish ‘ media will congratulate the Scottish NHS for its sterling work during this most difficult time in its history .
On that day , I will be voted the World’s sexiest septuagenarian , Scotland will win the Word Cup , Neil Oliver will admit that he is a closet Scottish Nationalist and the BBC will admit to at least one breach of their impartiality code .
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“The real gap with England is probably even greater as NHS England cheats. NHS England starts the clock again after patients are admitted while NHS Scotland counts from arrival in A&E. ”
Fleshing out the comparability – or otherwise – of the stats from NHS Scotland and England a bit more may be helpful. The four hour waiting time performance standard when applied to NHS England’s Type 1 and to NHS Scotland’s Main Site A&E departments looks to me to be directly comparable, based on published definitions. It should provide a valid comparison against a similar – however flawed – performance metric.
See: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/07/AE-Attendances-Emergency-Definitions-v4.0-final-July-2019.pdf
In the above document we learn that: the 4 hour standard clock in England starts from the time that the patient arrives in A&E and it stops when the patient leaves the department on admission, transfer from the hospital or discharge.
It explains that the time of arrival of a patient should be recorded by the clinician (nurse or doctor) carrying out initial triage/assessment or A&E reception, whichever is earlier.
The public communication of the absolute numbers waiting over 4 hours is where difference – and potential for confusion – arises. NHS Scotland publishes the total numbers waiting over 4, 8 and 12 hours in A&E using the SAME definition of clock starting and stopping times as used when calculating percentage performance against the 4 hour standard.
The NHS England performance metric for absolute numbers waiting over 4 hour is defined in a quite different way from the practice in Scotland. The metric is described as ‘Waits for Emergency Admission via A&E from decision to admit to admission.’ It has two sub categories:
‘A3) Total number of patients who have waited 4-12 hours in A&E from decision to admit to admission
‘A4) Total number of patients who have waited over 12 hours in A&E from decision to admit to admission.’
On the face of it, the absolute numbers published under these NHS England definitions will not be ALL the over 4 hour waits but only the SUB-SET that goes on to be ‘admitted’. If I have this right, this will be a source of difference between absolute numbers waiting beyond 4 hours published by the different NHS organisations – the NHS England numbers smaller by definition!
So in short the NHS in England and Scotland publish a directly comparable – and similarly expressed – performance metric for the four hour standard. On absolute numbers of those present in A&E beyond four hours their chosen metric/s are defined quite differently.
Of course journalists should be sure they understand the definitions and crucially, the implications of difference when making comparisons.
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