Sarwar urges Sturgeon to act after 4,000 faced A&E waits of more than 24 hours

Some 4,069 patients waited more than 24 hours to be seen at emergency departments in Scotland in the last year – with others waiting up to two days for emergency care, figures show.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the figures, obtained by the party through freedom of information requests, are “shocking”.

The figures for the year to September 25, 2022 show 859 people waited more than 36 hours to be assessed and either admitted, treated or discharged in A&E departments.

Meanwhile, 243 people waited more than 48 hours to be seen.

Speaking at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Mr Sarwar said A&E departments are in “disarray” as he urged Nicola Sturgeon to admit her Government and the Health Secretary are out of their depth in tackling the crisis.

He said: “First Minister, I have come here week after week asking you to take this crisis seriously.

“So don’t point to announcements made last year. Don’t tell us how much you care. Don’t repeat how unacceptable you think it is. Tell us what you’re going to do to fix it and by when.”

In a Scottish Parliament debate on Wednesday, Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie branded Humza Yousaf the worst Health Secretary since devolution.

On Thursday, Mr Sarwar said: “The First Minister should reflect on the fact that we’re talking about people’s lives here.

“Lives are being lost because of the failure in our A&Es and the failures of this Government.

“This is the worst it has ever been. How bad does it have to get? How long do people have to wait? How many lives have to be lost before this First Minister admits that this Health Secretary and her Government have no idea what they are doing?”

Ms Sturgeon cited progress in the most recent A&E wait times, where a slight improvement was recorded in the week to October 16 compared to the week before.

The number of people seen in four hours increased to 65.3% – up from 64.2% – and those waiting more than eight and 12 hours also improved.

She hit out at Labour’s failure to mention the Covid-19 impact on the health service.

She said: “It is because this is so serious, because whenever we talk about the NHS it is lives that we are talking about, that it is important to take this seriously and to look at all of the factors here, which is why I think it is reasonable to say that when Labour come to the chamber and try to debate the NHS and pretend the pandemic didn’t happen, and that that isn’t one of the main reasons why we are seeing so many of these pressures, suggests that they are not taking this issue as seriously as they should be.

“We will continue to take actions around staffing, around funding, around redesigning of care to support our health service through this.

“We will focus on that each and every day, from the Health Secretary, me and the entire Government.

“There is much, much work to be done. We are going into a very challenging winter period which is why hospitals across the country, health boards across the country, are working hard to plan for winter, and this Government will continue to support them.”