NHS Ayrshire and Arran has failed to meet Accident & Emergency waiting times targets for a whole year, with South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth demanding that the Scottish Government take urgent action.

Analysis carried out by Colin Smyth MSP into figures from the Scottish Government’s Information Services Division shows that the last time Government A&E targets were met was during week ending 7th October 2018. In the last 12 months 12,850 patients have waited longer than the legal target for treatment at A&E departments across Ayrshire.

The legal waiting time target set by the Scottish Government is that 95% of patients attending A&E should be seen and subsequently discharged, transferred or admitted within 4 hours.

The figures also showed at 1,326 patients in the last 12 months waited longer than 12 hours in an Ayrshire A&E department.

Colin Smyth said, “With NHS Ayrshire and Arran failing to meet legal targets for A&E waiting times it is clear that the chronic underfunding of our NHS is having an impact on patient care. This SNP Scottish Government can not expect waiting time targets to be met if they do not provide the funding required to meet those targets.

It is even more disappointing that the Health Secretary and this SNP Scottish Government are so complacent. In response to concerns I raised with the Jeanne Freeman over long waiting times she simply dismissed the problem by saying that A&E waiting times in Scotland are the best in the UK. Local people aren’t interested in what happens In England. They care about services in Ayrshire and Arran and so should Jeanne Freeman.

The Scottish Government need to wake up to the crisis in A&E departments and take immediate action. Their complacency must end by investing in our NHS to cope with increasing demand and support our frontline NHS staff who go above and beyond for patient care.”