A&E waiting times branded ‘intolerable’ as four-hour target missed for thousands

A&E waiting times are “intolerable”, the Scottish Conservatives have said, as the latest weekly figures show around a third of patients were not seen within the four-hour target time.

The Scottish Government’s target to see and subsequently admit, transfer or discharge 95% of patients within four hours has not been met since before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The latest Public Health Scotland figures, released on Tuesday, show for the week ending on June 18 68.4% of the 27,975 patients turning up at A&E were seen within four hours, a slight decrease from 69.6% the previous week.

A total of 2,373 patients (8.5%) waited for more than eight hours in A&E and 786 (2.8%) were there for more than 12 hours before being dealt with.

Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “It’s utterly unacceptable that in high summer the already-dire waiting times in A&E are still deteriorating.

“It seems almost baked in now that, regardless of the time of year, around a third of patients can expect to wait more than four hours to be seen, which is simply intolerable.

“Our A&E departments continue to be overwhelmed due to the SNP’s dire workforce planning and Humza Yousaf’s flimsy NHS recovery plan – despite the best efforts of my dedicated colleagues on the frontline.

“It is clear that Humza Yousaf’s disastrous tenure as SNP health secretary has had a devastating impact on our NHS. Patients are bearing the brunt of his failures – we know that these waits can lead to tragic, needless loss of life.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Performance continues to fluctuate as we work towards recovery, but we know that performance is not where it needs to be. We continue to work closely with the health boards facing the greatest challenges in A&E, to drive down waiting times and improve services for patients and staff.

“Hospital bed occupancy continues to be a major factor impacting on performance. We are continuing to manage ongoing pressures on acute care by expanding Hospital at Home capacity across the country.”