Weekly A&E waiting time performance largely unchanged

Scotland’s weekly A&E waiting time performance figures remain largely unchanged, with a third of patients waiting longer than the target time.

During the week ending October 8, a total of 16,965 patients in emergency departments – 66.6% – were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

This figure is up very slightly from last week’s, when 66.1% of all attendances were seen within four hours.

It has remained around this level for the past several weeks.

In the latest data, 2,619 patients – 10.3% – spent longer than eight hours in an emergency department.

Meanwhile, 988 patients – 3.9% – spent longer than 12 hours in emergency departments.

The figures come as First Minister Humza Yousaf is expected to pledge an additional £300 million to bring down NHS waiting lists over the next three years.

In his speech to the SNP conference later on Tuesday, he is expected to pledge to reduce overall NHS waiting lists by an estimated 100,000 patients by 2026.