EXTREME WAITS FOR OVER-60S AT A&E 'WORST EVER'

THE SNP has been shamed by figures showing that extreme long waits for older people in emergency departments across Scotland are now the worst on record.

- Ben Borland

The SNP Government was told it can’t ignore the crisis any longer in damning comments from leading medical organisations.

One in every eight patients in that age bracket waited 12 hours or more in 2024, up by 14,407 on the previous 12 months. The total is over 16 times higher than in 2019 when just 3,135 older people endured waits of this length.

Dr Fiona Hunter, Vice-President of RCEM Scotland, said: “This data is both shocking and shameful, and it is abundantly clear that older people are bearing the brunt of a system in crisis.

“Hundreds of thousands of dearly loved people — great-grandparents, grandmas, granddads, parents — forced to experience extreme long stays in our emergency departments every year mainly because we don’t have enough inpatient beds to admit them to when they need one, often enduring these waits on trolleys in areas that aren’t designed to deliver care in - corridors or even cupboards.

“It’s a failure of the system. It’s unacceptable, it’s dangerous and it’s putting lives at risk.