in an emergency department, data from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Over 51 000 over 60s waited more than 12 hours to be transferred, admitted or discharged in 2024. Doctors say the delays are unacceptable and unsafe. The Scottish Government says……
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Professor John Robertson OBA
On the day that health unions in England, on BBC UK, suggest that Labour’s claimed reduction in waiting lists is more to do with ‘data cleansing‘ than improved performance, BBC Reporting Scotland has this to lay at the door of the Scottish Government and not where, in England or Wales it would go, to the health boards actually responsible.
Notably, BBC Scotland‘s website has no full report on this, only the Daily Express frontpage topping its ‘papers’ section.
The actual report by the RCEM in Scotland, indicates:
New analysis from the Royal College of Emergency (RCEM) reveals in major EDs, one in every eight patients (51,423) aged 60 or over waited more than 12 hours to be transferred, admitted or discharged in 2024.1
Neither it nor BBC Scotland, nor the Express, makes any reference to the earlier RCEM Freedom of Information request, asking the exact same question, to NHS England, published in May 2025, revealing:
More than a million elderly people in England endured waits of 12 hours or more in A&E in 2024 – A new report from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) reveals a stark increase in the number of elderly and frail patients facing extensive waits, often on trolleys in corridors. Figures obtained by the RCEM through Freedom of Information requests show 1.15 million people aged 60 and over experienced lengthy delays in England’s major A&E departments in 2024.2
So with 10 times the population, all things being equal, NHS England might be expected to have around 51 400 (10 time 5 140) waiting 12 hours or more but had 1 150 000, almost exactly TWICE as many.
Might this be useful information in helping you to decide who to vote for next year?
Sources:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Two comments:
Alasdair Macdonald
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There have now been two press statements issued during August by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) concerning A&E waits in Scotland. The headlines use extremely negative language, designed to alarm – ‘unacceptable and dangerous’, ‘ shocking and shameful’ and ‘dangerous’. These are in addition to a press statement in June – ‘deeply concerning and distressing’ in the headline, and one in July when new data on delayed discharge rather than the reported A&E waiting times in the statement was deemed presumably to provide a ‘better’ headline.
By contrast, I can find no RCEM press statement on NHS England’s A&E waits during June and July. When last commenting on A&E waits in NHS England – on its performance during May 2025 – the RCEM statement had this headline: ‘Slight improvements hard to celebrate when thousands of people are enduring extreme A&E waits’.
For perspective, on over 12 hour stays in A&E during July 2025:
NHS Scotland: 4.35% of attendances: NHS England: 8.9% of attendances.
The RCEM press statement on the above performance by NHS Scotland had this headline: ‘Number of people facing extreme waits in Scotland’s A&E ‘unacceptable and dangerous’ . The RCEM opted NOT to issue a press statement on these NHS England figures – even tho’ surely 8.9% is an awful lot worse than 4.35%!
Source: NHS England Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) – Data June 2025 and July 2025 (Provisional) Statistical Commentary
When the RCEM last commented on waits in NHS England’s A&E departments, data for May 2025, NHS England reported that 9.4% of attendances spent over 12 hours in an A&E department. Using the NHS Scotland figures in May quoted in an RCEM press statement – 125,779 attendances and 4,863 spending 12 hours or more – this equates to 3.9%. The RCEM statement notes: ‘Which is a slight improvement on the previous month.’ Rather than refer to this in its headline and opening paragraphs, the RCEM opted to focus on delayed discharges.
Despite reporting regularly on the waiting times performance of A&E departments in England (albeit, oddly, not recently), NI, Scotland and Wales – reports which have long revealed the substantially better performance on NHS Scotland. – the RCEM NEVER explicitly acknowledges this fact as far as I can tell.
Moreover, based on the nature of its press statements, there is a case to be made that its ‘tone’ is much more negative and indeed, alarmist when reporting on Scotland. And it is no surprise that the BBC and mainstream media that supposedly serve Scotland laps this up, all the time shunning any comparative assessment that would show NHS Scotland in a good light!
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I have a hunch that when organisations comment on matters Scottish, there is a tendency to tailor remarks to media expectations hence maximise publicity for the organisation – IIRC it was Dr Kennedy boasting of the publicity he was bringing to the BMA in Scotland in a Twitter exchange that first raised my attention to it…
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