The national rollout of specialist frailty services across all 30 of Scotland’s A&E departments is set to reduce the length of hospital stays and eventually bring down waiting lists, says Scotland’s Health Secretary.

Making frailty teams accessible “at the front door of every A&E” by the summer was one of the pledges made by the First Minister when he unveiled the Scottish government’s NHS renewal plans.

The government hopes these services – which allow frail patients to skip A&E – will encourage better coordination between community health, social care and hospitals, and reduce the length of hospital stay.

On a visit to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary this morning, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Neil Gray said he has already seen “encouraging signs” the plans are working.

He heard from the Glasgow team that the average length of stay for vulnerable patients has reduced by three days over the last 18 months – without an increase in readmission.

Enhanced coordination and collaboration among healthcare teams has also led to improved patient outcomes.

Laura Duffy, Consultant Geriatrician at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, said the initiative helps staff identify people living with frailty and prioritise the specialist care they need:

“A key part of developing this service has been ensuring that we identify the priorities and concerns of our patients and their carers promptly and work in partnership with them to develop a plan for their care.

“We have also worked at further developing and enhancing our links and interface working with our colleagues in the community and in social care.

“We have developed daily huddles which can be attended by a variety of acute, community and social care teams. These allow the early exchange of key information and collateral information gathering about patients, which helps provide more effective, timely and patient centred care.”

There are currently five frailty units in place in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Lanarkshire, Tayside, Glasgow and Dumfries and Galloway, though there is variation in how they are delivered.

These services have been evaluated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland which has since developed an Ageing and Frailty Standards guide to inform the expansion of frailty services.

Health Secretary Mr Gray said a portion of £200m announced in the 2025/26 Scottish Budget will be used to expand the services across Scotland this year, to enable people with frailty to be referred directly by GPs and the Scottish Ambulance Service:

“I was pleased to meet the team working in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary frailty service and see first-hand the positive impact their crucial work is having – with the service allowing speedier assessment of vulnerable people presenting at A&E and reducing length of stay for patients significantly.

“We want to replicate this success across Scotland and shift the balance of care from acute, to community.”

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