Improvement in A&E waiting times as 77% of patients seen within four hours

NHS Scotland have released the latest figures.

Waiting times in Scotland’s A&E departments have improved (Danny Lawson/PA) (PA Archive)

More than three quarters of patients attending accident and emergency were seen within four hours, the latest figures show.

A&E waiting time figures reveal that 77.7% of patients were admitted to hospital, transferred or discharged within the four-hour target time in the week ending January 23 – the highest proportion since the week of Christmas.

A total of 4,773 patients waited longer than four hours to be seen, including 966 who waited more than eight hours and 301 who were left waiting over 12 hours.

Monthly A&E figures, published by Public Health Scotland, show there were 110,934 patients who visited A&E during December, the lowest number since April.

Of those 75.7% were seen within the target time.

The Scottish Government’s target is for 95% of patients to be seen within four hours, although this has not been met since July 2020.