Accident and Emergency figures must be “a wake-up call” to the SNP the Scottish Conservatives have said as weekly discharge figures show no improvement.
Figures released by Public Health Scotland on Tuesday show that, during week ending May 3, 66.1% of attendances at emergency departments were seen within the four-hour target time – down from 66.4% the previous week.
There were 29,721 attendances at emergency departments in Scotland for the beginning of May, compared to 28,470 the previous week.
Of those attendances, 19,631 were seen and resulted in a subsequent admission, transfer or discharge within four hours, compared to 18,915 the previous week.
While 3,145 patients spent more than eight hours waiting compared to 3,001 the previous week, and 1,183 patients spent more than 12 hours in A&E compared to 1,122 the previous week.
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton MSP said: “These dire statistics must serve as a wake-up call to SNP ministers who are already obsessing over independence instead of the issues that matter to Scots.
“Lives are being needlessly lost because thousands of patients are experiencing unacceptably long waiting times in our overstretched A&E departments.”
Frontline staff are working flat out for their patients but, after two decades of SNP incompetence, they simply don’t have the resources to cut through the backlog in our health service
Last week, figures released by Public Health Scotland showed 67.5% of attendances at emergency departments in March were seen within the four-hour target time – up from 66.4% the previous month, but still well short of the 95% goal set by ministers.
Ms Hamilton continued: “Frontline staff are working flat out for their patients but, after two decades of SNP incompetence, they simply don’t have the resources to cut through the backlog in our health service.
“The Scottish Conservatives stopped an SNP majority and denied John Swinney his self-imposed independence ‘mandate’ – so he should stop obsessing over breaking up the UK and fix the crisis in our NHS which his government created.”
Scottish Labour Health spokesperson Dame Jackie Baillie said: “These stark figures lay bare the toll the SNP’s NHS crisis is taking on patients and staff.
“John Swinney and the SNP have talked a big talk about our NHS during the election and now I will be holding them to account on their promises.
“More of the same will not cut it – we need urgent action to fix this crisis, support NHS staff and give patients an NHS that is truly there when they need it.”
SNP MSP Clare Haughey said: “Last week, voters across Scotland overwhelmingly put their faith in John Swinney’s trusted leadership which is laser-focused on driving improvements in our NHS.
“The SNP’s plan for the NHS is working – waiting times are down for 10 months in a row, operation numbers up and we are opening GP walk-in centres all over the country.
“The SNP has shown that we can drive improvements across our NHS as a minority government. It is now on other parties to stop talking down our NHS and engage effectively as part of the budget and other processes to continue this progress.”