Thousands of Scots are enduring painful delays for surgery as pressure on accident and emergency departments spills into other parts of the NHS, according to a damning new study.
Emergency departments remain overwhelmed, while the SNP Government has failed to meet its own four-hour treatment target for six consecutive years.
Researchers at NHS Lanarkshire have now published data indicating that the daily influx of patients is creating knock-on waiting lists elsewhere in the health service, particularly for people awaiting surgery.
The findings offer the first clear picture of how lengthy A&E queues are affecting other hospital services.
The paper, published in the International Journal of Health Planning and Management, raises growing “concerns about cancelling elective operations to cope with emergency services”.
Its authors are urging ministers to protect hospital beds for patients requiring planned operations.
Scottish Conservative health and care spokesman Miles Briggs said last night: “This damning study lays bare the consequences of the SNP’s chronic mismanagement of A&E services.
“Not only are A&E patients waiting too long to be seen, their failures are now resulting in vital operations being cancelled.
Delays in Scotland’s emergency departments are having a knock-on effect on waiting times across the NHS
Health Secretary Angela Constance has admitted that lengthy waits are “unacceptable”
“When A&E collapses, planned care is getting raided to keep the show on the road.
“First Minister John Swinney cannot keep robbing Peter to pay Paul and call it an NHS recovery.”
Scottish Labour health spokesman Jackie Baillie said: “This SNP Government has presided over chaos in our NHS.
“They are patting themselves on the back and claiming that things have turned a corner, but the truth is patients who are suffering won’t be fooled by cherry-picked statistics.
“We need meaningful progress on tackling Scotland’s abysmal waiting lists.”
A&E attendances reached a new monthly record in May this year, with 129,453 visits recorded.
SNP ministers have set a standard requiring at least 95 per cent of patients to be dealt with within four hours. However, that target has not been achieved since June 2020.
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In July this year, just 65 per cent of patients were dealt with within the required time, while the standard was missed in 43,770 cases.
During the same month, 2,214 operations were cancelled elsewhere in the NHS.
The study’s authors, who work at University Hospital Wishaw and include consultant surgeon Kawan Shalli, set out to examine whether the A&E crisis was linked to the disruption facing planned surgery.
They took detailed A&E data for Scotland’s five largest health boards – Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Lothian, Grampian, Lanarkshire and Tayside – for the most recent year available, 2021.
Then they overlaid similar figures for general surgical departments, which cover minor operations and procedures.
Analysis showed a link between long A&E waits and delays in the other, supposedly-unrelated services offered by hospitals, the effect especially strong in Lothian.
The study concluded that bosses are commandeering beds to deal with bulges in daily walk-in demand – but that then simply creates queues in other departments.
It stated: ‘Efforts to reduce Emergency Department waiting times have included improved intra-hospital bed flow, adequate day beds, clinical streaming and early senior review.
‘While these interventions can improve ED performance, they often place competing pressures on elective services.
‘Our stratified analysis across Scotland’s five largest health boards support this tension; regions with higher ED breaches generally showed longer elective waits.
‘To ensure timely and adequate treatment of patients, policymakers should invest in resources to improve the efficiency of both emergency and elective services and introduce management plans that balance the needs of both services.’
Health Secretary Angela Constance said: ‘Long waits are unacceptable.
‘While the challenges facing Scotland are not unique, I am focused on ensuring people get the care they need as quickly as possible. The status quo cannot continue.
‘I have published a new national plan to improve the flow of patients through hospitals and we have provided £90million of dedicated funding to support those waiting the longest for treatment.
‘However, pressures on our A&E are impacted by the delayed discharge of patients into social care settings.
‘Not all of this is in the gift of the Scottish Government so it is vital we work closely with councils and social care providers to reform the system as a whole.’