Scottish Conservative and Unionist South Scotland MSP Brian Whittle is urging SNP Ministers tackle spiralling waiting times in accident and emergency departments.
Brian’s call comes after the latest weekly A&E waiting time statistics showed only 80.1% of patients across Scotland were seen within four hours.
The Scottish Government’s target is for 95% of patients to be treated within four hours, with hundreds of patients also waiting more than eight or twelve hours. No mainland health board met the 95% target.
In Ayrshire & Arran only 80.4% were treated within four hours of arriving at A&E in the week ending 11th July. That is only a slight improvement on the previous week when 80.1% were seen within four hours.
Brian is pushing SNP Ministers to back Scottish Conservative plans for a one-off investment of £600 million in the NHS specifically to deal with waiting times.
Brian Whittle MSP said: “NHS staff working in accident and emergency departments are working incredibly hard to support their patients but the pressure on them is only ever growing.
The Scottish Government owe it to medics to get on top of the situation. Meanwhile patients across Ayrshire & Arran pay the price by having to wait longer in A&E than they should.
It’s not acceptable that a fifth of patients aren’t being seen within four hours. That’s many more than the SNP’s target of only one in twenty people.
Across Scotland, the SNP haven’t met the A&E waiting time target for more than a year. That should be a source of shame to them.
Patients in Ayrshire & Arran deserve to be treated within the timescale that the Scottish Government pledged. The Scottish Conservatives have called for a one-off £600million investment to deal with unacceptable waiting times in the NHS and I’ll keep pushing the Scottish Government to take this plan up.”
