EMERGENCY department waiting times at Glasgow's new super-hospital continue to be the worst in Scotland, but new statistics on mortality also show that death rates across all facility as a whole are well below the national average.

The latest quarterly mortality statistics reveal that the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow is one of the best performing in the country despite its high-profile struggle to meet the Government's A&E waiting times target.

The figures for April to the end of June this year compare a hospital's performance on the basis of how many patients were statistically expected to die during the three-month period against the actual number to create a ratio. Only patients who died within 30 days of admission, either in hospital or in the community, are included.

The report by ISD Scotland shows that there were 622 such patient deaths recorded by the QEU compared to a predicted 813, scoring the hospital a 0.77 ratio - compared to 0.86 for the national average. In crude terms, it means four in every 200 patients admitted to the QEU died within a month, compared to five in every 200 across all NHS Scotland hospitals.

The QEU was one of only two hospitals in Scotland which recorded a mortality ratio significantly below the national average. The Raigmore Hospital in Inverness scored 0.58 after registering 70 patient deaths compared to an expected 120. However, ISD Scotland cautioned that data from NHS Highland is incomplete and therefore less reliable than the figures for Glasgow.

The Scottish Government has set a target to reduce the death rate - known as 'hospital standardised mortality ratios' - by 10 per cent by December 2018. The latest report shows a seven per cent reduction against the January-March 2014 baseline.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “[These] mortality statistics show exactly why our Scottish Patient Safety Programme deserves its international reputation as a world leader and the numerous copies of it around the world.

“It is particularly encouraging to see that our newest hospital, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, has a hospital mortality rate that is significantly below the national average – showing the benefits of delivering the most modern models of care in the most up-to-date healthcare facilities."

Caithness General was flagged, however, for scoring 1.78 mortality after recording 14 patient deaths compared to an expected eight. ISD Scotland stressed that the data "should be regarded as a trigger for further investigations", rather than evidence of a "poor quality or unsafe service".

Meanwhile, the latest weekly waiting times figures for Scotland's 30 "core" Emergency Departments showed that the QEU continues to miss the Scottish Government target to have 95 per cent of patients seen and admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, achieving only 83.6 per cent - the lowest in Scotland.

However, it is performing better than other Scottish hospital for extreme A&E delays. To date in 2016, 16 patients have waited longer than 12 hours at the QEU emergency department compared to 223 at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, 197 at Hairmyres and 99 at Wishaw General, both in Lanarkshire.

The latest figures came as Ms Robison announced an extra £3 million in winter resilience funding for the NHS, in addition to £9m previously announced to support A&E and £30m to reduce delayed discharge this year.

Labour hailed the extra £3m as a "significant victory" for patients, but stressed that the "u-turn" came two months after the Scottish Government had been criticised for cutting winter resilience funding by £1.8m.

The move comes amid reports that the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley is to advertise for volunteers to work in A&E wards this winter.
 
Labour Health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: “We have a Health Secretary who doesn’t know how much extra support our NHS needs in the winter, while our health service is having to advertise for volunteers to ease pressure in A&E wards. Our NHS looks set for yet another winter of SNP crisis management."

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said performance acorss the board region was improving overall despite day-to-day fluctuations.

She added: "Local teams continue to make changes to improve the service we offer. The Board is carrying out a ‘root and branch’ review of unscheduled care, headed up by deputy medical director Dr David Stewart.

"This includes identifying practical projects that will tackle bottlenecks and deliver improvements. The review brings together examples of best practice and learning that has enabled our clinical teams to introduce new ways of working to improve the quality of care we provide and make our processes more effective.

"This work will continue throughout the winter months."