Scots patient forced to wait FIVE days in A&E as NHS crisis deepens

A patient waited a staggering 122 hours for treatment in an accident and emergency department.More than 7,300 patients had to wait more than one day in a Scottish A&E department last year before they were treated, according to figures.The stats from Public Health Scotland, which were obtained by Scottish Labour through freedom of information (FOI), showed that 7,367 patients spent more than 24 hours in an emergency department before being discharged, admitted or transferred in 2023.The longest wait in A&E last year was at NHS Ayrshire and Arran's University Hospital Crosshouse, where a patient waited more than 122 hours, or five days.There were waits of more than 88 hours recorded in NHS Borders, and 72 hours in NHS Lanarkshire.Out of the 14 health boards in Scotland, nine had waits of more than a day.

Only Western Isles, Tayside, Shetland, Orkney and Lothian were under that timeframe.However, Public Health Scotland has said that some attendances recorded as more than 24 hours could be due to errors in records that suggest longer waits than actually happened.These long waits continued into the first weeks of 2024.

Five health boards that provided figures had waits of longer than 24 hours.In the first few weeks of January this year, NHS Highland had the longest wait of 100 hours, followed by more than 60 in NHS Lanarkshire.Scottish Labour's health spokeswoman Dame Jackie Baillie has called for action from Health Secretary Neil Gray, saying that the health service is in the grips of a "deadly crisis".An MSP has hit out at Scotland's A&E crisis, branding the situation a "deadly crisis".Jackie Baillie said: "Scotland's A&E departments are in the grip of a deadly crisis, with lives being put on the line day in and day out.""T