A&E target missed for almost a million Scots in three years

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today revealed that almost a million Scots have had to wait more than 4 hours in A&E since the Scottish Government's key waiting times target was last hit three years ago – a new record.

The last time the Scottish Government met its target for 95% of attendees at A&E to be seen within four hours was during the week ending 12 July 2020.

Scottish Liberal Democrat analysis has today revealed that since this date, the four hour target was missed for 957,545 A&E attendees, of whom 256,658 were not seen within eight hours and 94,600 were not seen within twelve hours.

In a scathing verdict on Humza Yousaf's tenure as Health Secretary and First Minister, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

“It has now been a record 1095 days since the Scottish Government last met it’s A&E target, surpassing the 994 days that this target was missed pre-pandemic.

"In that time, almost a million Scots have waited too long for treatment and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. This is the kind of service that Scots have come to expect from Humza Yousaf and the SNP/Green Government.

"There is no shortage of goodwill and dedication on the part of NHS staff, but they don’t have the beds, safe staffing and resources they need.

"Scottish Liberal Democrats are putting forward positive and practical plans to fix our NHS. We would bring forward a new strategy to retain staff and tackle burnout, create a world-beating system to tackle Scotland’s mental health crisis, and scrap the billion pound takeover of social care so that can be spent instead on the community staff and services that enable people to leave hospital.”