Critical Care: Johnstone urges action on night time discharges

Tuesday August 11th 2015

Alison Johnstone MSP, the Scottish Greens’ health spokesperson, today urged the Scottish Government to address areas of concern highlighted by an audit into Critical Care in hospitals.

The review shows:

• Although every patient in a Critical Care Unit should be seen each day by an appropriately trained consultant, only 77 per cent of Intensive Care Units achieved this in 2014, compared to 85 per cent in 2013.
• Night time discharges from critical care, associated with worse outcomes for patients, have remained at a similar percentage to that reported in 2013.
• Over the last ten years, mortality figures for admission to Intensive Care Units in Scotland have been reducing.

Alison Johnstone, Scottish Green MSP for Lothian, said:

“This audit is a mixed report for health service managers and the Scottish Government. While it’s obviously very welcome that patients are more likely to survive their admission to Intensive Care, some key challenges clearly remain.

“The drop in Intensive Care patients being seen each day by trained consultants is worrying, and it is important that the reasons behind this are learned so the situation can be turned around. There is a serious problem in recruitment and training in intensive care medicine, and that must be addressed.

“It’s also a concern that night time discharges from critical care have not been reduced, and I would urge management and government to focus more attention on this issue to ensure patient recovery is not being put at risk. We need to see more effort to improve connections in the NHS and make beds available for people who still need care.”

Audit of Critical Care in Scotland can be found here

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