A&E waiting times worst since early January, figures show

Waiting times in Scotland’s emergency departments are at the worst level since early January, official figures show.

In the week ending February 13, only 73.2% of people who went to A&E were seen and subsequently admitted or discharged within the four-hour target, down from 74.4% the previous week, according to figures released by Public Health Scotland.

The Scottish Government aims to ensure 95% of patients are seen to within four hours – a target that has not been met since July 2020.

Of the 23,849 people who attended emergency departments, 498 were left waiting for more than 12 hours, while 1,417 waited more than eight hours.

Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said waiting times should be improving with the peak of the Omicron variant having passed.

“It’s unacceptable that more than a quarter of patients had to wait more than four hours to be seen – and intolerable that almost 500 were forced to wait half a day to be seen – because lives will be needlessly lost,” he said.

“Every week, it seems, I call on Humza Yousaf to get to grips with this crisis and devise a coherent plan for tackling it – but nothing changes.

“The Health Secretary appears wedded to his inadequate Covid recovery plan when it’s patently obvious it isn’t fit for purpose.

“Staff on Scotland’s under-resourced A&E frontline must be at their wits’ end – they have worked heroically throughout the pandemic yet been let down by the SNP Government.”