Robison under fire for ‘record of failure’

Labour has accused Health Secretary Shona Robison of a “record of failure” as figures show more than 178,000 patients waited four hours or more at A&E since she took the post two years ago.

Ms Robison, below, was appointed on November 21 2014 and since then 178,198 patients waited longer than the Scottish Government’s four-hour A&E target to be seen, an average of 265 patients daily.

NHS Scotland’s annual report published last week showed its A&E departments ranked as the bestperforming in the UK for the first time despite failing to meet the waiting times target.

The criticism follows a report by public spending watchdog Audit Scotland which warned health boards will need to make “unprecedented savings” this year and may be unable to balance their budgets.

Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: “Shona Robison has a record of failure as health secretary.

“The fact that almost 180,000 patients in Scotland have waited longer than four hours to be seen in A&E since Shona Robison was appointed to the job is an outrage.

“Local services facing closure, a growing workforce crisis and health boards making cuts – that’s the reality of life for our NHS under the SNP.

“All across Scotland communities face losing the local services they depend on. Lightburn Hospital in Glasgow, cleft palate services in Edinburgh and the children’s ward at the Royal Alexandra in Paisley all face closure or downgrading.”

A spokesman for Ms Robison said: “This is a shameful attack on our health service from a party which has argued for NHS funding levels even lower than the Tories.

“Scotland’s core hospital A&Es are the best-performing in the UK – a record maintained now for 19 months.”