I have tabled questions in the Scottish Parliament to try and find out why some Health Boards are falling far behind others with A&E waiting times.
In raising the figures from the latest weekly Public Health Scotland data I drew comparison between health boards in the region. NHS Tayside achieved a figure of 83.8% of patients seen withing the national four-hour A&E waiting time target, whereas NHS Fife was only at 54.3% and NHS Forth Valley was as low as 41.7%.
I am asking the Scottish Government with sincerity why one Health Board in the region can have a somewhat respectable number of patients seen within four hours and yet another has such a shockingly low percentage seen in the expected timescale.
We need to get to the bottom of why people are waiting so long to be seen at A&E in NHS Fife and Forth Valley hospitals. Is it a case that NHS Tayside is doing something that can be learned from or are there structural problems within NHS Fife and Forth Valley causing these low figures?
I am asking the Scottish Government to look into this and tell the people who use these services what is happening. Surely it must be concerning for the government to see only around half of A&E attendees are seen within four hours in some hospitals. We need to find out what is going on in order to get to the bottom of it and bring the service back to an acceptable level.
