South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth has said that staff and patients across Ayrshire and Arran are being let down by the SNP Scottish Government

The latest figures from the Scottish Government’s Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland show that between Monday 4^th February 2019 and Sunday 10^th February 2019 – 349 patients waited more than the four hours legal target time before being seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged in Accident and Emergency.

In the same week 125 patients had to wait over 8 hours, with 42 patients having to wait over 12 hours to be seen and admitted, transferred or discharged.

South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth said, “Behind these figures there are individual patients and staff are being let down by the SNP Scottish Government. With 16.3% of patients attending A&E having to wait longer than the Government’s own legal waiting time target of four hours to be seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharges demonstrates an NHS that has a chronic lack of resources.

NHS staff in our A&E departments work incredibly hard but they simply are not receiving the support they need to see and treat all patients within the targets set by this SNP Government. Cuts to out of hours services and a shortage of GPs means more people have to take themselves to A&E, putting more pressure on the service.