Forth Valley Royal Hospital waiting times crisis

Of the 1233 patients who attended A&E at the Larbert hospital in the week ending June 26, 691 of them – 56 per cent – had to wait over six hours to be seen, treated, admitted or discharged.

And only 542 of those 1233 patients – 44 per cent – were dealt with within four hours.

This compares to the week before when 1246 patients attended A&E and 588 – 47 percent – of them had to wait over six hours to be dealt with, while 648 patients – 52 per cent – were processed within four hours.

The figures for Scotland as a whole for the week ending June 26 saw 67 per cent of 27,646 patients being dealt with within four hours and just 32 per cent of them taking over six hours to be processed.

There have been forecasts Scotland’s NHS health boards could be heading for a major crisis as the number of patients forced to wait longer than four hours at A&E departments around the country has now grown to the highest on record.

An NHS Forth Valley spokesperson said: “We are seeing higher than usual numbers of very sick patients attending our Emergency Department who need immediate care. This means some other patients have had to wait longer than usual to be seen and we apologise to anyone who has experienced a long wait.

“Our staff are doing everything possible to reduce delays, so unless it’s life-threatening or very urgent, for example, a suspected heart attack, stroke or severe breathing difficulties, please do not come to the Emergency Department as you may be redirected to another NHS service or face a very long wait.”

Statistics from Public Health Scotland show 8993 people waited more than four hours in emergency departments in the week up to June 26.

The previous high was seen in the week up to March 20, when 8631 patients were waiting longer than four hours – the Scottish Government’s target time for patients to be assessed and discharged or admitted.