Health board apologises after patients left to wait 18 hours for hospital bed

A health board was forced to apologise amid claims patients had been left languishing on trolleys for 18 hours waiting for a bed.

Labour health spokesman Neil Findlay raised the issue at Holyrood by revealing patients at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital had endured the waits this week.

He said: “I heard from staff about patients being left on trolleys for up to 18 hours at Edinburgh’s Western General before a hospital bed was found for them.

“It’s simply not good enough.”

NHS Lothian’s director of unscheduled care, Melanie Hornett, said: “I would like to apologise to anyone who has had to wait too long, we know this is not acceptable and our teams work extremely hard to ensure patients are seen, diagnosed, treated and admitted or discharged as quickly as possible.

“Winter is a challenging time for all hospitals and we have planned as best we can to ensure a safe and effective service for patients, but we are already experiencing high levels of demand for our unscheduled care services.”

First Minister Alex Salmond said: “Let’s remember that the people who serve in this unit serve the public and are doing their best for the health of Scotland.”