Tories blast ‘permanent crisis’ in A&E as waiting times figures published

Scotland’s A&E departments are in “permanent crisis”, the Tories have insisted, as figures showed the worst February on record for waiting times.

The latest data from Public Health Scotland showed that in February 2026 two thirds (66.4%) of patients in accident and emergency were seen and then either admitted, transferred or discharged within the four-hour target time.

This is the lowest level on record in data going back to 2008 – with the total also well below the Scottish Government target of having 95% of patients admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

Public Health Scotland noted that compliance with this “has been below 80% since summer 2021”.

A total of 41,252 patients spent more than four hours in A&E in February – with this including 16,592 who were there for eight hours or more, and 8,204 who waited at least 12 hours.

The figures were published as separate, weekly, waiting times statistics for Scotland’s A&e departments showed, in the last week of March,  63.5% of patients in A&E were admitted, transferred or discharged within the target time.

The figures, for the week ending March 29, marked an improvement from the previous week’s total of 60.9% but were below the average weekly performance figure of 64.9% recorded in 2025.

In the final full week of March, 10,307 people spent more than four hours in A&E, with 4,051 – 14.3% of patients that week – there for a minimum of eight hours.

Meanwhile, 1,824 patients – 6.5% of A&E cases for the week – were in A&E for 12 hours or more.

The number of patients having these longer waits was up from the previous week, and also higher than the 2025 weekly average.

Scottish Conservative health spokesperson, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, said: “These appalling and worsening statistics expose the SNP’s chronic mismanagement of our health service.

“Our A&E departments are in a state of permanent crisis, with thousands of patients enduring dangerous delays on the nationalists’ watch. We know this costs lives.

“Frontline staff are working flat out but SNP incompetence means they simply don’t have the resources to get through the A&E backlog.”

The Tory went on to warn that if the SNP was to win a majority in next month’s Holyrood election, the “top priority” for John Swinney and his party “will be independence, not fixing our health service”.

As a result, he urged voters to back the Conservatives to “stop an SNP majority and ensure the focus is on real issues like our NHS”.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “We are disturbingly used to huge waits at A&E, which shows just how commonplace the SNP’s failures have become.

“The only way to bring down waits is to fix the broken care system- that is what Scottish Liberal Democrats have been saying from the very start.

“There are not enough beds in A&E because there are no longer the beds in longer-term wards to move patients to.

“Too many beds in longer-term wards are occupied by people who are medically ready to leave but can’t because the shortages of care workers and care packages won’t let them.”