THE number of people visiting Scotland’s hospital emergency departments has risen to its high level since the start of the coronavirus lockdown.
Official figures showed 19,804 attendances at A&E in the final week of May, an increase of 2,133 or 12 per cent on the previous week.
The new figure was the highest since the week ending March 22, on the eve of the lockdown, when there were 16,518 attendances.
The figure is also significantly higher than the lowest point for attendances, in the week ending March 29, when just 11,059 people went to A&E.
However even the improved numbers are still around 20% down on pre-Covid levels.
In the early weeks of the outbreak, the precipitous fall in A&E attendances raised fears sick people were avoiding hospitals in case they caught the virus or didn’t want to be a burden.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman welcomed the move towards more typical numbers.
The latest data also showed 95.2% of patients were seen within the Scottish Government's four-hour waiting target.
However 58 spent more than eight hours in A&E and 11 more than 12 hours.
The previous high for attendances in 2020 was the week ending March 15, when 24,052 patients went to A&E.
Ms Freeman said: "This is due to the continued hard work and dedication of staff in our NHS who are providing an exceptional level of care during these extraordinary times.
"Each and every staff member has my very grateful thanks.
"As we move towards carefully and gradually resuming NHS services which were paused as a result of Covid-19, I want to remind people that if you have urgent medical concerns to contact your GP or NHS 24, who can provide advice and direct you to the most appropriate service.
"That message is really important. Do not ignore early warning signs of serious conditions - if you have new symptoms then it's vital you get this checked out."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel