A&E waiting times target missed again in April

A failure to give NHS staff the support needed to treat accident and emergency patients within four hours has left hundreds of patients in pain, opposition parties have claimed.

New NHS performance statistics for A&E in the last week of April, showed that only 87 per cent of patients were seen, and admitted or discharged, within the four hour waiting time target with 412 patients spending more than eight hours waiting to be seen, and 135 more than 12 hours waiting for treatment.

Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson, Monica Lennon, said NHS staff were “simply not receiving the support needed to see and treat all patients within the targets set by the SNP government.”

Health secretary Jeane Freeman said Scotland’s A&E departments had outperformed those in the rest of the UK for more than four years.