The NHS in Scotland is in a state of “perpetual crisis” as many of those attending A&E wards are still left waiting hours to be seen, Labour has warned.

The Scottish Government target is for patients to be seen and discharged or admitted to hospital within four hours – but last week 30 per cent of the total faced even longer waits.

The figure is the same as the week ending May 15, though the number of attendances at Scottish A&E units increased slightly.

There were 27,091 attendances in the most recent figures, up from 26,979 in the previous week.

For the week ending May 22, 1,981 patients were waiting longer than eight hours and 649 waited longer than 12 hours.

Compliance with the four-hour waiting time standard has been below 80 per cent since the start of the year.

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