Stricken patients reportedly faced waits of more than 10 hours at Scotland’s flagship hospital today. Many people opted to leave the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and seek treatment elsewhere as the A&E came under siege.
Scores of patients queued up in the waiting room, with one man visiting his friend describing the emergency department as “chokka”.
Robert Reid, 65, from Dykebar, Paisley, had been taking his pal for a walk around the grounds when they were met by a frustrated patient.
He said: “Just as we were at A&E a woman came out and said ‘I wouldn’t go in there if I were you, I’ve just been told there’s a 10-hour-wait’. She had just phoned her son to come and pick her up. She was looking pretty harassed.
“We had a look in at A&E, it was chokka. There were about 35-40 patients in the waiting room and that was about 6.20pm. Who knows what it might have been like later.”
Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “It is extraordinary that we haven’t even reached winter yet but the pressure on A&E is so intense. That people are having to wait unacceptable hours, in spite of all the hard work of all the staff in the NHS, shows the SNP Government need to get a grip.
“It looks like this might be the most under pressure winter period facing the NHS and the Scottish Government is doing nothing to address it.”
A spokesman from NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde apologised for the long waits patients faced. He said: “Like other health boards in the country, NHSGGC faces many demands on services, particularly our A&E departments.
“We would like to apologise to anyone who has had to wait longer than they may have expected but we would like to reassure the public that we closely monitor the activity in our A&E departments.
“We would also once again like to thank our staff who are working extremely hard on a daily basis to address these challenges with the utmost professionalism and commitment.
“To help them, we’d like to remind the public that if they are feeling unwell, they should check NHS Inform for advice and if necessary call NHS24 on 111 in the first instance, so that they can be assessed and directed to the appropriate healthcare setting if required.”
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