A&E waiting times at the Royal Infirmary - your views online

The latest NHS data shows Edinburgh Royal Infirmary has the second worst Accident and Emergency waiting times in the country, and is one of only two still treating less than half of patients within four hours.

Anne-Marie Boner Ani: The staff in the Royal are absolutely amazing considering the chaos and pressure they are under. My mum was taken in on Saturday morning with an internal bleed. She was still sitting in her wheelchair 11 hours later as there wasn’t a spare trolley bed or cubicle. Thankfully they eventually found a trolley bed and parked her in a corner until the found a bay in the Acute Medical Unit (she’s still there waiting on a bed in the GI Ward). The staff are absolutely run off their feet, but still so caring. Huge respect for them all.

Kirsty Leslie: You might want to add though that at the Royal infirmary the ambulances don’t have to sit and wait for hours to drop off the patients whereas they do in every other hospital A&E department in Scotland. So whilst Edinburgh’s patients might be sitting past four hours the ones elsewhere could have been waiting for 12 hours already outside in an ambulance. Edinburgh really doesn’t have the worst numbers if you take that into consideration.

Anne Marie Snaith: Very well said. The ambulances never have long to wait in Edinburgh A&E and are seen quickly upon arrival. Patients who are walking in still don't understand what A&E means. Having a cold, a paper cut to your finger or having had a sore back for three years is not an emergency.

The Emergency department at the Royal Infirmary is under acute pressure

Liz Crosbie: It is because they can’ t get GP appointments that they go to A&E. I used to volunteer with the Red Cross many years ago in A&E where I lived in England and some of the people that were there and complaining about the waiting time certainly should not have been there with things like a sore tooth or indigestion. I used to long to tell them where to go!

Margaret Crawford: I worked in the Royal Infirmary for a number of years. I remember people coming to A&E with ailments which weren’t emergencies. I empathise with the staff and I’m relieved that I’m too old to have to carry on nursing. I think they do a wonderful job in very difficult conditions.

Bill Whyte: I had to attend A&E a few weeks ago. While I was waiting to be seen a nurse called out at least four names and no-one responded to the calls Why would anyone go to A&E, register to be seen, and not wait? The obvious answer would be that they did not need to be there in the first place. I have great respect for the staff in the A&E departmen t at the Royal Infirmary, they to a fantastic job under great pressure and stress. I feel that the A&E at the Western General should never have been closed. There is now only one place to go in Edinburgh for an emergency, and that is the Royal Infirmary. One other reason for the large numbers going to A&E is that people are finding it increasingly difficult to see their GP.

‘We need another A&E department’

Ken Johnson: It’s not just only the one place in Edinburgh – there’s no A&E in East Lothian any more, and GPs no longer do minor injuries like they did a decade ago. However, there needs to be better advertising about the minor injury clinics that are available at the Royal and the Western. Many A&E patients go to A&E because minor injury units aren’t advertised.

Carolyn Fielding: I was there yesterday with my 87-year-old mum. Three-and-a-half hours to be seen. Not the staff’s fault. They work tirelessly and are truly amazing. I would say half the patients didn’t have to be there – a GP appointment would have sufficed.

Catriona Begbie: The staff are doing their best. It doesn’t help that Covid means our immune systems seem to be weaker and we are mixing more without masks and catching more. We took the wee one to A&E when he had Strep and they were brilliant. I have to say, it’s a shame that the lovely triage staff can’t simply say to some people “go away, this isn’t an emergency”. They were ever so polite and diplomatic to people who didn’t need to be there.

Stephen Brown: In a fast growing city we need another A&E department. There should be one should be set up at the Western General.

Kyle Danko: Edinburgh needs an additional hospital. The population has grown significantly in the past two decades yet we have fewer beds than ever.

Kirsty Campbell: A&E at the RoyaI Infirmary yesterday at 5pm had 105 people waiting to be seen. People were standing as they’d run out of seats. The staff were incredibly calm and professional with everyone but it cant go on with this level of pressure.