Forth Valley NHS apologises as emergency and cancer departments miss targets

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Nearly half of all patients attending Forth Valley Royal Hospital's emergency department last month had to wait longer than the target four hours to be treated, members of the NHS health board have heard.

NHS Forth Valley chief executive Cathie Cowan told members of the health board that the problems in the ED are "a barometer" of the huge pressures that the whole system is under.The day she addressed the board (Tuesday) the health service had 122 delayed discharges, including 47 in FVRH itself.

However, in addition to those 47 delayed discharges, 61 were also waiting to be transferred into a community health facility or social care."You can begin to see that we have nearly three to four of our wards with patients who shouldn't be in those beds - they should be somewhere else to meet their needs.

When you think that we've only got 12 wards, that's exceptional pressure on the site."The effect of delayed discharge is particularly acute in Forth Valley which has only one hospital.While the Scottish Government standard expects 95 per cent of patients to be treated within four-hours, July so far has seen just 51.8 per cent of those attending the Larbert hospital's emergency department hitting that target.Once again, Ms Cowan began her report with an apology to the people of Forth Valley for the delays and acknowledging that the hospital is still putting five beds in four-bed bays and still using treatment rooms.She said: "I am sorry.