A&E waiting times: Continued pressure on Forth Valley Royal Hospital as more than half of patients wait over four hours

Forth Valley Royal Hospital had the third worst waiting times for a hospital in Scotland for the week ending December 31, 2023, according to the latest figures published by Public Health Scotland.

The figures show that during that week, a total of 1116 people attended the local accident and emergency department. Of these, 486 people (43.5 per cent) were treated, admitted or discharged within four hours.

The local figure falls far short of the Scottish Government’s target of 95 per cent of patients attending accident and emergency departments being seen, treated, admitted or discharged within a four hour period.

A total of 330 people (29.6 per cent) waited over eight hours in Forth Valley, while 176 (15.8 per cent) waited over 12 hours.

The weekly figure showed a slight improvement on the previous week, when 41.8 per cent of people attending at the Larbert hospital were seen and either discharged or admitted within the four hour time frame.

However, the data still showed Forth Valley Royal as being at the bottom end of the table when it came to achieving the Scottish Government set target. Only Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary had lower numbers being seen within the four hours, with 37.6 per cent and 40.4 per cent within four hours respectively.

This compares to 60.8 per cent of 23,331 attendees throughout the whole of Scotland who were seen within that time period.

With NHS Forth Valley having just one acute hospital with an accident and emergency department, this data places the health board as the worst performing in Scotland.

It means a comparison with other health boards essentially compares one individual hospital to an average of multiple hospital sites in other areas of Scotland.

A spokesperson for NHS Forth Valley said: “Forth Valley Royal Hospital, like many hospitals across Scotland, continues to face capacity challenges with many seriously ill patients requiring admission for treatment along with high numbers of patients experiencing delays in being discharged. This impacts on our performance against the four hour emergency access standard.

"Patients with more serious illnesses and injuries who require urgent care continue to be prioritised and many patients will undergo tests and start treatment in ED while they wait to be admitted to a hospital ward.

"Staff and colleagues working in local health and care services across the area are doing everything possible to reduce delays and anyone who requires health advice for an injury or illness which isn’t life-threatening can use the symptom checkers on NHS Inform or call NHS 24 on 111 for advice.”

The spokesperson added that local pharmacists can also provide healthcare advice and free treatment for many common clinical conditions under the Pharmacy Frist scheme without the need for a GP prescription. People can also arrange appointments with a wider range of healthcare professionals at local GP practices across the area, including mental health nurses and physiotherapists.