This winter will be worse in A&E departments than last, warns top doctor

Scotland’s emergency departments will likely fare worse this winter than last, a top doctor has said.

A&E waiting times in August were the worst on record for that month, with more than a third of patients seeking emergency treatment waiting longer than four hours.

Dr Fiona Hunter, vice-chairwoman of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, said there is a “crisis” in emergency care – a description rejected by Health Secretary Neil Gray.

“There’s no one simple solution that is going to fix this winter, and we’re already in crisis,” Dr Hunter told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme.

“Any emergency medicine staff would tell you, if you speak to patients that have had to visit or staff that work in frontline healthcare just now, they will confirm that we are already in crisis.

“We unfortunately are not able to provide the safe and dignified care that we are aiming to do.”

The health service usually sees a spike in pressure through the winter, but Dr Hunter said “winter has already started” in Scotland’s NHS and Scottish Government plans to counter the pressures “are not going to be enough”.

She added: “I think it is predictable that we are going to see a worse winter than we did last year, and we barely scraped through last year intact.”

Earlier in the programme, Mr Gray refused to say there is a crisis in the NHS, echoing comments he made in an interview he gave to Holyrood magazine last month.

“I accept that where there are pressures and where there are challenges, of course it can feel like (there is a crisis),” he said.

“For anyone that is waiting too long for an appointment or for treatment, then of course it will feel like that.

“I do not deny the challenge that there is within the health service.

“What I do know from speaking to staff, from engaging with patients, from going to sites across Scotland, is that there is incredible work, incredible innovation, phenomenal staff, going above and beyond, delivering excellent healthcare across the country.

“I want to make sure that that is recognised, because there are just as many – if not more – people who will be getting incredibly good care who would not recognise that characterisation and would not think it fair to be described as such.”

Dr Hunter said failing to accept there is a crisis is “not helpful”.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane accused the Health Secretary of being “too stuck in his ministerial ivory tower to recognise the reality of what is happening in Scotland’s NHS”.

Dr Gulhane added: “His stubborn refusal to admit there is a crisis in the health service is completely at odds with what my frontline colleagues are telling him, or what suffering patients are experiencing every single day.”