A&E patient numbers highest since Covid pandemic started
- Published
The number of people attending hospital accident and emergency units last week was the highest since the coronavirus pandemic began in Scotland.
The latest NHS figures show that the last week of May saw 26,115 Scots turning up at A&E.
This was the most since the final week of February 2020, when the first cases of Covid where discovered.
In the first month of the pandemic, A&E patient numbers plummeted to a record low of 11,059.
Attendances gradually increased to a summer high of 24,050 in mid-August, before dropping back below 16,000 in January during the second wave of Covid-19, when restrictions were at their strictest.
But since the end of January, A&E attendances have increased in all but four weeks.
The latest Public Health Scotland figures show that last week 85.7.% of patients were seen and admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, below the Scottish government target of 95%.
They also show 410 patients spent more than eight hours waiting to be seen at an A&E department, while a further 109 patients waited longer than 12 hours.