Row over A&E provision after MSP slams waiting times

Ms Gallacher is critical of the fact that only 70.4 per cent of patients are being seen within a four hour time window in NHS Lanarkshire – when the target set by the Scottish Government is 95 per cent.

She said:“Week after week, patients are waiting hours on end after arriving to be treated at accident and emergency in NHS Lanarkshire.

“Scottish Ministers are failing to ensure critical waiting time targets are being met, which is completely unacceptable.

“As we look to remobilise NHS services in Lanarkshire, it is time the Scottish Government backed Scottish Conservative plans for an extra investment of £600 million in our health service, which would be used to specifically tackle waiting times.

“We cannot continue to let down patients and our heroic frontline staff by allowing waiting times to potentially spiral out of control.”

Last week, Health Secretary Humza Yusaf claimed Scotland’s core A&E departments had outperformed those in the rest of the UK for more than six years.

He added the Government was in daily contact with every board and was monitoring the situation closely as staff faced “unprecedented” pressure.

Meanwhile NHS Lanarkshire’s director of acute services Judith Park said Ms Gallacher failed to take one key factor into account.

This is that some attending the unit simply should not be there as they are placing an undue burden on staff.

She said: “The sustained pressure we are seeing across our three acute hospitals is showing no signs of easing. We continue to see exceptionally high numbers of people attend A&E, including many who attend for conditions that would be best treated elsewhere.

"We are asking people to please keep our A&E departments safe for critical care patients. If you think you need to attend A&E but it’s not life-threatening, consider the alternatives. You can call NHS 24 on 111 day or night, where you will be directed to the right service or use NHS Inform online.”