New stats onA&E wait times

New statistics from Public Health Scotland show only 53.1 per cent of A&E patients were seen in under four hours by NHS Lanarkshire in the week ending June 5.

In under eight hours, 86.5 per cent were seen – these are both the worst rate of any Health Board in Scotland.

In just one week, 1907 patients waited more than four hours, 511 waited more than eight hours and 134 people waited longer than 12 hours to be seen.

University Hos p i t a l Hairmyres saw just 43.3 per cent of patients seen within four hours.

Forty- nine per cent of patients were seen within four hours at University Hospital Wishaw.

The best performing hospital in the area was U n i v e r s i t y Hos p i t a l Monklands, which saw 66.9 per cent of patients attended to within four hours.

However, this is still below the national average of 69.6 per cent.

Scottish Labour MSP f or Cent ral Scotland, Mark Griffin, slammed the Scottish Government over the statistics.

He said: “These are truly shocking figures that should act as a wake-up call to the Health Secretary and Scottish Government. As this crisis has deepened, the Health Secretary has been missing in action whilst the First Minister has been distracted by trips to America and interviews about Referendums. They need to get a grip, and fast.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “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.

“Scotland continues to have the best performing A&Es in the UK, outperforming those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for over six years.”