HEALTH boards across Scotland are to be given an extra £9 million to help cut unnecessary hospital admissions and prepare emergency departments for the pressures of winter.

Poor weather and seasonal increases in illness such as flu pile pressure on hospital wards during winter, while bed blocking presents a major challenge in meeting NHS targets.

The new funding will go towards improving staffing cover, providing treatment in the community and making sure patients can be discharged at weekends as in the week, rather than having to remain in hospital until Monday.

More than 26,000 patients were rushed to A&E during a single week in both November and March, according to NHS data. Respiratory illness is a key diagnosis in three of the top five A&E cases, accounting for 45,000 emergency bed days every year.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon highlighted the funding during a visit to the Chronic Obstructive

Pulmonary Disease (COPD) unit at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE), where the COPD unit at RIE has worked collaboratively to reduce the level of admissions and free up nearly 3,000 bed days since 2013.

A recently published review of last winter shows that, despite increased admissions across Scotland, A&E waiting times improved significantly and the number of people delayed from leaving hospital was reduced.

Sturgeon said: “A&E attendances last winter increased, yet emergency departments consistently improved their performance. This is testament to the immensely hard work and dedication of our NHS staff and follows a three-year £50m unscheduled care fund which supported boards to make changes.

“The additional £9m for this year will ensure patients get the best treatment in the most appropriate place, easing pressure on our A&E departments and maximising patient flows within hospitals which face additional admission demands in winter.

“The approach taken here at the RIE to target respiratory illness – which is the most common factor in A&E presentations in winter – has freed up 3,000 emergency bed days and demonstrates the value of successful working across the health and social care system.

“With more and more people now living with long term conditions, and a growing number of older people with multiple and complex conditions, it is also vital that the NHS has robust preventative care plans. Winter guidance was issued to boards in August and health boards are now well advanced in their unscheduled care planning – putting them on the front foot to build on last year’s good performance and deal with additional pressures throughout the coming winter.”

New figures revealed under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the BBC showed that from 2013 to March this year, thousands of people have missed out getting patient dementia support and patients’ prospects of getting help varied greatly depending on where they lived. The dementia support scheme, which promised support for one year after diagnosis of dementia, was launched three years ago.

In the Western Isles, the service stopped in March 2015 for nearly 18 months, but 100 per cent of people diagnosed with dementia in Orkney and Shetland have received the support. Forty-nine patients were diagnosed in Orkney and 125 in Shetland.

In Greater Glasgow, 4,293 people have been diagnosed since 2013 and 3,228 have received the support. In Lothian, 3,725 were diagnosed with dementia and 1,949 were able to get help from the scheme. Forth Valley Health Board said it was too expensive to produce figures and denied the FOI request.

Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned that asthma was being “overlooked” after new guidelines, produced jointly by the British Thoracic Society (BTS) and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, emphasised that there is still no single test that can definitively diagnose asthma and an individual’s asthma status can change over time.