The EDs

We deliver our service across 3 Departments in NHS Lothian to approximately 200,000 patients a year.  We believe in clinical excellence, provided within a strong multidisciplinary team ethos and with patient care at its centre.

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) Emergency Department (ED) is the biggest adult ED in Scotland and thrives on seeing a high acuity of patients and delivering true emergency critical care at the front door. In 2025, we cared for 130,000 patient attendances increasing from 125,000 in 2024. Despite this, we have a well-maintained admission rate of just around 30%, helped by increased Emergency Physician presence, real-time decision support, and continual innovation to treat patients closer to home or in ambulatory settings.

  • The RIE is one of four Major Trauma Centres in Scotland and we assessed over 1000 patients in 2024, of which around 25% had an ISS >15. There is a helipad on site and increasing numbers of patients attend by air ambulance. Emergency Physicians team lead all trauma resuscitation cases with excellent support from radiologists, surgeons, anaesthetists and intensivists. With the exception of plastics, burns and maxillo-facial, all surgical specialties are on site.

    We also benefit from a nurse lead minor injuries service between 0800-2300, 7 days a week.

    The ED team is well supported with a 7-day Occupational Therapy assessment with support from Frailty specialists, Physiotherapists, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and enhanced role Radiographers.

    Resident doctors work in a team for their attachment which promotes a positive camaraderie and fabulous team ethos.

    There is a clear consultant supervisor structure, and consultants are present on the shop floor from 0745hrs to 0200hrs, 7 days a week.

St John’s Hospital

St John's is a modern teaching hospital which opened in 1989 in Livingston, a new town 17 miles west of Edinburgh.

The Emergency Department (ED) in St John’s hospital is open 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. The department sees on average 55,000 patients a year; however this is increasing. It receives patients from across West Lothian and surrounding areas. The ED area holds 22 cubicles plus a safe space room and 3 resuscitation bays. The ED does not receive direct trauma but will facilitate other resus cases such as plastics emergencies, DKA’s, cardiac arrests and respiratory emergencies to name but a few. The department is a busy, challenging, and exciting environment. It provides the multi-disciplinary team with opportunities to deliver holistic care in a teaching environment that works to enhance safe patient care.

  • Our ED also sees paediatric patients and hosts a minor injuries unit within the department. The department holds NHS Lothian’s core values closely and aims to uphold these at all times during patients journeys within the department.

    EM has many varied learning opportunities and new team members will undergo an induction process to help facilitate a smooth transition into the team. We have an education facilitator and a variety of nurse led teaching programmes with departmental and external training offered to ensure appropriate development and training.

    The team at St John’s ED work very closely together. This close team dynamic and bond makes SJH ED department a positive, fulfilling, and exciting opportunity for professional seeking Emergency Medicine experience.

    St John’s is also home to the Short Stay Elective Surgical Centre, which opened in January 2011, and treats around 3,000 patients a year from across Lothian for day surgery.

    The hospital also hosts Lothian’s specialist head and neck unit, the Hooper Hand Unit, a supra-regional burns centre and has a reputation for excellence in maternity services, with around 3,000 babies born at the hospital every year.

Royal Hospital for Children & Young People (RHCYP)

The RHCYP ED sits adjacent to the RIE ED on a co-located site in Little France in Edinburgh.

Following co-location to the Little France site, RHCYP increased its field of work by seeing children and young people up to the age of 16 years.

It is one of 3 Paediatric Major Trauma Centres in Scotland and the PMTC for the South East of Scotland, supporting the SE trauma units in VHK, BGH and FVRH, along with LEH at SJH.

  • The RHCYP acts as the local paediatric referral centre for the children and young people of Edinburgh and surrounding areas, and as a tertiary referral centre for intensive care patients; gastroenterology, hepatology & nutrition; respiratory medicine; cardiology; nephrology; neurology; oncology; haematology; rheumatology; neonatal surgery; plastic surgery; orthopaedic surgery; urological surgery and aspects of general surgery. Hospital accommodation encompasses a rooftop helipad, six theatres and an intra-operative MRI, a critical care unit comprising a 10 bedded Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, 10 bedded High Dependency Unit and a 4 bedded Surgical Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

    The Emergency Department currently sees 55,000 -60,000 attendances annually with a high acuity case mix of medical, surgical and mental health presentations. As of 2025 we have 11.5 wte consultants with a mix from Emergency Medicine and Paediatric backgrounds with some providing cross cover between the EDs in RIE and SJH and paediatric medicine at RHCYP. This established model provides a truly collaborative team across the SE of Scotland. The wider clinical team in the ED consists of experienced and supportive specialty doctors, EM trainees, GPSTs, ENPs and ANPs.

    The department is fully invested in training doctors and nurse practitioners of the future. We are committed to an active and full departmental education package focussing on varied learning methods and accessibility. The ADME and Foundation programme director are EM consultants working from within the department and are truly centred on the health, well-being and teaching of doctors in training.