Patients 'in danger' as 4200 NHS beds cut in Scotland in 12 years

And a further 1070 are required over the following five years in Scotland to drive "meaningful change and improvement" which would improve accident and emergency waiting times, ambulance response times and a return to safe bed occupancy levels.

There is further concern that as of April, 4000 patients faced a 12 hour wait in Scots accident and emergency (A&E) departments, from the time of arrival, for treatment.

The Scottish Government target is for 95 per cent of patients to be admitted, transferred or discharged from A&E within four hours.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine say of nearly 25,000 beds lost across the UK since 2010, 4227 were in Scotland.

They describe it as "both a patient safety crisis and a workforce crisis".

The RCEM says that the cuts in beds has been exacerbated by Covid, which necessitated the removal of beds to comply with infection prevention control (IPC) measures.

Across the UK, the RCEM say that 4,500 beds are needed across the NHS next winter to reach a pre-pandemic bed to admission ratio and a further 9,500 to drive meaningful improvements.

The association says the allocation of beds should be based on population needs and should not worsen health inequalities.

Dr Adrian Boyle, vice president of The Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “The urgent and emergency care system is in crisis. The situation is dire and demands meaningful action. Ultimately, there are widespread staffing shortages leading to a shortage of staffed beds in the system.

“The numbers are grim; they should shock all health and political leaders. These numbers translate to real patient harm and a serious patient safety crisis.

"The health service is not functioning as it should and the UK governments must take the steps to prevent further deterioration in performance and drive meaningful improvement, especially ahead of next winter.”

The RCEM has said that the data from A&E departments indicated "dangerous overcrowding" which was the result of a "broken health system in dire crisis".

In March, the NHS saw a 60 per cent increase in the number of days hospital beds were occupied unnecessarily.

And the number of planned operations which took place in March was 20,000, an increase on the previous month, but 20 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Scottish Labour health spokesman Jackie Baillie said the RCEM analysis underlined the "parlous state of Scotland’s NHS under the SNP".

“For years, successive SNP health ministers – including the First Minister – have failed to properly resource and support our NHS," she said.

“Thousands of patients across Scotland are being put in danger due to this government’s cuts to the number of staffed beds.

“It is simply unacceptable that over 4,000 beds have been cut by this SNP government since 2010.

“This cannot continue – we cannot have patients put in danger and the hard work of NHS staff undermined.

“Humza Yousaf must wake up to the problem before him and act to restore bed numbers before lives are lost.”

Just 72 per cent of patients visiting A&E in March were dealt with in four hours.

This is a drop on the previous record monthly figures, in October last year and February 2022, both at 74 per cent.

The RCEM, however, also pointed out that within the UK there is an unwarranted variation in the numbers of available beds. With 3.6 beds per 1000 of population Scotland stands ahead of the other four UK nations, and would sit in the middle of a league table of European Union nations. At 2.2 beds per 1000, England has the fewest.

A report from Audit Scotland published in February identified major staff recruitment and retention issues in the NHS, and said the service will need reform in order to be financially sustainable.

Auditor General Stephen Boyle has said that workforce availability and well-being are the biggest risks to reform.

It will be “challenging” to achieve the recruitment goals outlined in the Scottish Government’s national workforce strategy, he said.

Public spending auditors said in February that the health service remained on an emergency footing as patient waiting lists soared.

Last month it was confirmed that Scotland's hospitals have hired 191 nurses from countries including India and the Philippines to help the NHS through "unprecedented challenges".

Humza Yousaf said last month that agreements were in place with recruitment agencies to hire a further 203 nurses from overseas.

More than 1,000 new support staff have also been hired to work in acute hospitals and community health teams.

The moves are part of funding packages totalling £19.5m announced last year.

Health secretary Humza Yousaf then said staff numbers were likely to increase significantly over the coming months as health boards take advantage of new infrastructure for employing qualified international staff.

He described the pandemic as "the biggest shock our NHS has faced in its 73-year existence".

Meanwhile, public satisfaction in Scotland's health service has plummeted as fewer patients are seen by GPs in person and the system struggles to recover from the Covid pandemic.

The damning results from the Health and Care Experience Survey - a Scottish Government -backed initiative that received more than 130,000 responses.

The proportion of people satisfied with the overall care provided by GP practices dropped by 12 percentage points in two years, with a third of people failing to rate their overall care positively.

Opposition parties blamed the Scottish Government for failing to ensure GP vacancies are filled - causing shortfalls in many rural areas.

About 156,000 whole-time equivalent staff were working for the health service in Scotland at the end of December, according to NHS Workforce statistics.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Over the course of the last two years we have been living in the midst of a pandemic, the biggest challenge our health service has ever had to grapple with.

“We now have an NHS Recovery Plan, setting out our plans for health and social are over the next 5 years and backed by over £1 billion of funding. We have also committed to doubling the number of virtual beds this year, with latest figures showing that we now have 655 across Scotland.

“But as well as supporting an increase in inpatient, daycase, and outpatient activity to ensure people across Scotland get the best possible care, the Scottish Government is working to make better use of the current bed capacity.

“Being at home or in a community setting is in the best interests of anyone who no longer has any clinical need to be in hospital.

“Significant additional funding has been allocated to support social care, including £62m to enhance care at home capacity; £48m to increase the hourly rate of pay; £40m to provide interim care arrangements; and £20m to enhance multi-disciplinary teams. Funding is also being used to rapidly scale up Hospital at Home services, which aim to provide alternatives to acute admissions and support timely discharge.”