Covid Scotland: A&E patient numbers highest since before coronavirus pandemic started

Accident and emergency attendances in Scotland are at their highest since long before the Covid-19 pandemic, the latest NHS Scotland figures reveal.

Scotland’s A&E numbers are at their highest for almost two years.

The first week in June saw 28,493 Scots attend an A&E department, the most since the final week of September 2019 and significantly above the previous week’s 26,115.

Of those, 83.8.% were seen and admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours – below the Scottish Government target of 95%.

Read more – A&E admissions highest since before Covid pandemic

The figures, published by Public Health Scotland, also show 480 patients spent more than eight hours waiting at an A&E department, while a further 115 patients waited longer than 12 hours.

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.

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