South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth MSP has criticised the Scottish Government for once again failing to hit one of its own key targets Dumfries and Galloway.
National statistics published today (Wednesday 20 December) have highlighted that both of Dumfries and Galloway’s hospitals are falling short of the target waiting times of 95%.
The Scottish Government had set the target of patients entering A&E to be seen within 4 hours at 95%, however this target is being consistently missed across the country, inlcuding Dumfries and Galloway.
A series of damning official government statistics revealed:
-Dumfries and Galloway Infirmary was once again below the 95% target scoring 93.7%.
-Galloway Community Hospital also failed to reach the target with only 93.8% of patients being since within 4 hours of going to A&E.
-Nationally the majority of Scotland’s Health Boards are failing to meet the minimum target
The report also highlighted that the number of hospital beds in Dumfries and Galloway has been cut by nearly 8% since September 2011 with a cut of 53 beds have been lost from 718 to 667 on September 2016.
The figures come after the most damning Audit Scotland report on the state of the NHS since devolution. This showed a failure to meet seven out of eight key performance targets, health board cuts, and a growing workforce crisis.
Commenting on the A&E figures, Scottish Labour’s shadow health spokesman Colin Smyth MSP said:
“A decade of mismanagement is beginning to really hurt our local health service.”
“These figures will come as no surprise to anyone working in our NHS. Staff are being overworked and under resourced and the recent Scottish Government budget means NHS Dumfries and Galloway face having to make £20m of cuts in their budget next year.
“Dumfries and Galloway’s NHS is in a winter crisis as staffing shortages rise, waiting times are up and the local health board are facing more Government cuts.
“The fact that Dumfries and Galloway has lost nearly 8% of its hospital beds since 2011 just shows you how little the Government care about our area. At a time of growing demand, the Government cutting the number of beds is the way forward without putting in place alternative care.”
“Only a third of NHS staff think there are enough of them to do their jobs properly and nine out of ten nurses think their workload is getting worse – it is clear that our hospitals are finding it increasingly difficult to cope.”
“I know first-hand how incredible the staff in Dumfries and Galloways hospitals are, but there is only so much they can do when the Government are forcing the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway to make cuts of £20m next year, on top of the £13m they have had to cut this year”