NHS in Scotland 'fighting for its life' as A&E waiting times rocket over Christmas

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The NHS in Scotland has been left "fighting for its life" as new figures revealed the pressure on A&E wards during the festive season.More than 2,500 Scots spent 12 hours or more waiting to be seen in accident and emergency units across the country during the last week in December.The week ending January 1 also saw almost 5,000 patients have to wait more than eight hours to be treated – a new record.Delayed discharge rates also climbed to their highest point on record again in November, with the average number of beds occupied per day hitting 1,950.It comes as Nicola Sturgeon yesterday warned hospitals across Scotland were almost "completely full".Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour health spokeswoman, said: "Our NHS is fighting for its life, but the SNP don’t seem to grasp the scale of the challenge."In a single week thousands of Scots were stuck waiting more than half a day in A&E, putting lives at risk and putting staff in an impossible position."Delayed discharge continues to spiral and pile pressure on services, despite one empty SNP pledge after another to end the practice."Staff are exhausted, patients are in danger, and the very future of our NHS is at stake."The SNP must start acting with the urgency and ambition needed to tackle these problems before more lives are lost."The Scottish Government target is having 95 per cent of patients in A&E either admitted, transferred of discharged within four hours.But the final week of December 2022 saw just 56 per cent of patients dealt with within this time – the second worst performance ever.In three health board areas - NHS Forth Valley, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Fife - the four-hour target was missed for more than half of all patients.Humza Yousaf, the Health Secretary,