Statistics published yesterday (22 March) have shown that Accident and Emergency services across the south of Scotland continue to be a real concern.

None of the region’s health boards met the Scottish Government’s legally binding target of 95% of patients being admitted to the hospital, transferred or discharged within four hours of arriving at A&E.

Hundreds of patients spent over eight hours in A&E, with many waiting over 12 hours for treatment.

South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth said: “Week after week we are seeing proof that A&E departments locally are struggling to cope.

“These are not mere numbers – these are people’s mothers and fathers, children and grandparents – all waiting anxiously for treatment in some cases for more than 12 hours which is a scandal.

“NHS staff continue to work heroically to keep services running but they have been cruelly failed by a disinterested SNP government. This has to end.

“The effects of two years of the pandemic are still being felt and it could take years before the NHS is back to pre-Covid levels of waiting times. But many of the problems facing our NHS, including a lack of frontline staff, were there long before Covid,  they have simply been exposed by the pandemic.

“Our fantastic NHS staff are working incredibly hard, especially as Covid and the winter pressures continue to bite, but they can only do so much.”