PATIENTS arriving at A&E departments who do not need to be there are costing the NHS at least £33 million a year, according to new figures.
Figures published by Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland show each casualty visit in 2015/16 cost the health service £118.
But according to the Scottish Conservatives, around one in six attendances is unnecessary and says that at last year’s £118-per-visit cost, a total of £32,792,495 was spent dealing with needless admissions.
The Scottish Government has tried to reduce A&E admissions including diverting people to minor injury services and encouraging the use of NHS 24.
ISD Scotland says the average cost of each appointment has risen from £106 three years ago to £118 in 2015/16. When all A&E admissions are totalled, the Tories say the cost to the NHS was £197,327,000 last year.
Donald Cameron, Scottish Conservative health spokesman, said: “No-one blames people for going to A&E when they’re concerned for their own or a family member’s health. But it’s clear more needs to be done to promote other, more suitable options for those with less serious medical needs.”
The Scottish Government said it had invested £12m this year to improve patients’ experience by ensuring they are seen by the right person at the right time and supporting patients to remain in their own home.
A spokeswoman said: “These figures are not accurate because the cost of treating a patient who does not need A&E level care is much less than treating a patient who is seriously injured and needs emergency care.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here