By stewartb
Re long periods of time spent in A&E:
Performance statistics for A&E waits, NHS England, November and December 2024:
Over 12 hour delays = 54,207 patients – from decision to admit to admission. This equates to 1,749 decision to admit delays over 12 hours per day, an increase of 23.6% (334 patients daily) from December 2023.
Question: how long had these c.54k patients already spent in an A&E department up to the time the decision to admit them was made? In other words what was the TOTAL time they spent in A&E – how much longer than 12 hours did they spend in A&E – before being admitted to a ward? These 54k patients are the so-called ’trolley waits’!
Back to the NHS England performance statistics: over 12 hour delays during December = 166,989 patients – from arrival. This equates to 12% of attendances, compared to 157,556 (10.8%) in November 2024.
And for comparison, performance statistics for A&E waits for NHS Scotland, November 2024, from Public Health Scotland (January 16, 2025):
Over 12 hour delays = 6,683 patients – from arrival. This equates to 5.4% of attendances, compared to 7,674 (5.9%) the previous month, and 4,914 (4%) monthly average for 2023.
Yes, too many long waits in NHS Scotland but credit where credit is due: 5.4% of attendances in November is a lot lower than the equivalent figure of 10.8% in England.
For completeness, from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s press statement dated December 19, 2024 on latest statistics from NHS Wales:
‘The data, released today (Thursday 19 December 2024) by the Welsh Government showed in November .. more than one in seven (14.7%) waited 12 hours or longer in Emergency Departments across in the country.’
And 5.4% is a lot lower still than 14.7%!
Are politicians in Unionist party’s in North Britain aware of these comparisons favourable to NHS Scotland? Or is it that they are confident that the North British news media will never report or challenge their persistent efforts to denigrate and gaslight?
Talking-up Scotland 
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