Question reference: S6W-03020
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 16 September 2021
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what immediate steps it is taking to improve waiting times in NHS Lothian, in light of reports of waits of over 15 hours for ambulance transport from St John’s Hospital in Livingston for specialist hospital treatment in Edinburgh.
Answer
Ambulance services around the UK, as well as the wider NHS, are experiencing unprecedented demand – largely because of COVID but also due to a combination of increasingly complex cases, staffing challenges and exceptionally busy emergency departments.
That is why we have already taken significant action both prior to and since the pandemic to put in place measures to ensure all Health Boards including NHS Lothian and our Ambulance service have a full range of support.
In July, NHS Lothian received their share of the additional £12 million provided to Health Boards to support non-COVID emergency care. This funding will be utilised to boost staffing and capacity levels to reduce waiting times for urgent and emergency treatment.
To address the unacceptable ambulance waits, we announced an additional package of support for the Scottish Ambulance Service, backed by an additional £20 million, which will help increase capacity and improve response times and staff wellbeing - this includes assistance from over 100 military personnel.
We continue to be in daily contact with NHS Lothian to support improvement work within the Board and the Health & Social Care Partnerships to minimise delays for patients no matter where they are in the system.