The SNP Government is being urged to fix the current crisis in A&E after new figures revealed 30% of attendees waited more than four hours for treatment.
Public Health Scotland statistics published on Tuesday show 70.2% of those who attended emergency departments in the week up to May 15 were seen in less than four hours.
The Scottish Government target aims for 95% of patients to be seen and subsequently discharged or admitted within four hours.
The figure is a slight rise from the week before, when 69.6% were seen within the target time and remains higher than the lowest recorded figure of 66.2% seen in the week up to March 20.
Of the 26,979 attendees during the week, 8,040 waited more than four hours, 2,076 waited more than four hours and 626 waited more than 12 hours.
Scottish Labour Health spokesperson Jackie Baillie called for action to fix the problems, she said: "These dire figures confirm our emergency rooms have spent yet another week in crisis.
“We cannot normalise chaos while lives are being put at risk by dangerously long waits.
"Incredible NHS staff are working tirelessly to keep things running, but they shouldn’t be pushed to exhaustion by papering over the cracks caused by failures in leadership.
"The SNP need to do right by NHS patients and staff and get a grip on this life-threatening crisis, which has been raging on for months now.
"We don’t need any more commentary from the Health Secretary – we need action."
While Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "The continuing waiting times crisis in our A&E departments is becoming intolerable for patients and staff alike.
"The lack of action from the SNP/Green Government is providing no confidence that this crisis will abate any time soon.
"Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf have made it clear they would much rather pontificate endlessly on their latest push for independence rather than do what needs to be done to solve this crisis now. They are taking people for granted."
'Atrocious'
Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the figures were "atrocious", adding: "It's completely unacceptable that in the space of a week more than 8,000 people had to wait over four hours to be seen.
"And yet it's almost become the default position that three in 10 people coming to A&E face these excessive waits because the SNP Government have missed their 95% target by such a huge margin for so long.
"The Health Secretary can't just shrug his shoulders and accept this, because lives are being needlessly lost.
"He has to realise his flimsy Covid Recovery Plan isn't fit for purpose and belatedly come up with a strategy for tackling this deadly crisis."
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: "The latest weekly figures show seven out of 10 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.
"Scotland continues to have the best performing A&Es in the UK, outperforming those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for over six years."
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
