A&E crisis: ‘lives put at risk’ claims MSP as Fife patients wait for hours

The most recent data from Public Health Scotland shows that 67.8% of Fife’s A&E patients were seen within four hours in December 2024.

At the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, only 58.8% of patients were seen within that time. That means that approximately two out of five people waited more than four hours for treatment.

A total of 12.7% of patients waited more than eight hours and 395 (5.6%) patients were left waiting more than 12 hours.

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) called the figures “absolutely appalling”.

“Lives will undoubtedly have been put at risk and, in some tragic cases, lost due to these excessive waits facing patients. Successive SNP health secretaries have failed to get a grip of this situation and are now presiding over a permanent crisis in A&E services in Fife,” he said.

“Overwhelmed staff in Fife are doing their very best, but simply do not have the resources from the SNP government to treat patients quickly enough.”

Across Scotland, the Scottish Government’s target is for 95% of patients to be seen within four hours of arriving at A&E. However, health boards have struggled to meet those targets for years. Nationally, only 63.3% of patients were seen within that timescale.

Claire Dobson, NHS Fife’s director of acute services, did not respond to Mr Fraser’s comments about risk or permanent crisis, but she acknowledged that the health board is "experiencing considerable pressure on our services currently”.

“Our A&E is seeing high demand, with a significant proportion of those presenting acutely unwell and requiring inpatient care” she said. “NHS Fife is also seeing high numbers of patients referred to the acute hospital from GPs and NHS 24 each day.

"An average of around 180 patients attend our A&E each day, all of whom must be thoroughly assessed, treated and either transferred to an appropriate ward or discharged,” Ms Dobson said.

"The A&E does not operate in isolation from the rest of our acute hospital and is affected by the high demand we are seeing for inpatient care. As a result, it can be necessary for some patients to remain within the A&E while awaiting an appropriate bed elsewhere in the hospital.”

Over winter, she said it is vitally important that people help minimise wait times by “using the service appropriately”.

Ms Dobson emphasised that “A&E is only for those with life-threatening emergencies”.

“Where a person may require care for a condition which is not life threatening, they should instead use one of the range of other services available, which helps us reduce the amount of time all patients wait for care and treatment,” she said.

During winter NHS Fife has asked the public:

If they think they need urgent care but it’s not life threatening to call NHS 24 on 111

If they are unwell to check NHS Inform symptom checker for information on common symptoms

To avoid visiting our hospitals if they are unwell until they are free of symptoms of illness.

In a critical emergency always call 999.