THE BEAST from the East has been blamed for mucking up government targets in Scotland’s hospitals last month.
Official statistics released yesterday show that the number of operations cancelled in March spiked massively, while the number of A&E patients waiting more than four hours to be seen also jumped.
But while the figures showed that 4.1 per cent of planned operations, around 1200, were cancelled in March, up from 2.7 per cent in February, the actual number of planned operations carried out was higher than in the previous month.
The figures show 25,399 procedures were carried out during the month, up from 23,664 in February – a rise of 7.3 per cent.
Figures from NHS Lothian revealed 281 of its 417 non-clinical cancellations were due to the weather.
Weather also accounted for 60 of the 91 capacity or non-clinical cancellations in Fife, 36 out of 68 in NHS Highland and 28 out of 78 in NHS Borders.
During the month 137,820 people attended A&E with 87.9 per cent either admitted, transferred or discharged in four hours, falling below the government’s 95 per cent target.
But the latest weekly figures show 87.6 per cent of A&E patients were seen within the target time in the seven days to April 22.
Health secretary Shona Robison said: “Severe weather and warnings not to travel did mean many staff could not get to hospital, and this level of disruption takes hospitals time to recover from.
“Despite that, on average 820 operations a day took place and feedback from boards has shown that the clear majority of cancellations for capacity or non-clinical reasons in March was due to the adverse weather.”
Scottish Labour’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar said it was time for Robison to quit: “This failure goes straight to the door of the Health Secretary.”
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