A&E waiting time woes continue as MSP Meghan Gallacher hits out

The Scottish Conservative's call comes after only 70.2% of patients across Scotland were seen within four hours of arriving at A&E.

The SNP’s target is for 95 per cent of patients to be seen within four hours, but that target has not been met since July 2020.

And crucially, within NHS Lanarkshire, only 63.8 percent of patients were seen within four hours.

She said: “We are fast approaching summer and the picture with Covid is improving, yet A&E waiting times in NHS Lanarkshire are still atrocious. Far too many patients in NHS Lanarkshire are continuing to suffer excessive waits in A&E, which will ultimately lead to yet more unnecessary deaths.

“The SNP have missed their A&E waiting times target week after week, month after month, but we still see little in the way of action from the Health Secretary.

“Humza Yousaf needs to finally accept his flimsy NHS Recovery plan - produced almost a year ago - simply isn’t working for NHS Lanarkshire. He must urgently and belatedly come up with a new strategy in order to ensure A&E waiting times dramatically improve.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The latest weekly figures show seven out of ten patients are being seen within the four-hour target in our A&E departments, despite the unprecedented and continued impact of the pandemic on services.

“We know the situation may fluctuate as hospitals manage pandemic-related challenges and backlogs, but we expect the pressure in A&E to ease as COVID cases continue to decrease.

“Hospitals continue to face capacity issues as a result of high demand, staff absence and reduced beds due to infection control requirements, while high numbers of patients presenting who are acutely unwell is leading to a longer length of time spent in hospital and impacting on flow. We have invested £10m for two new specialist programmes,Discharge without Delay and Interface Care, which will speed up the hospital discharge process or provide an alternative to hospital care altogether.”

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