NHS Scotland’s continued poor performance should be a “warning sign” for the SNP as opposition MSPs line up to call out the rise in the number of Scots waiting too long to be seen in A&E.

Public Health Scotland data found that in the week ending April 2, just 63 per cent of patients were seen within four hours, down from 63.3% the week before. As many as 1,326 people waited over 12 hours to be seen in A&E and in the same week 3,333 waited over eight hours.

The arrival of spring should signal the end of winter strain on the health service, but the figures highlight the scale of the challenge left by former Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and the ongoing threat of “avoidable deaths”, say the Scottish Conservatives.

Among the worst hit health boards are Forth Valley where only 44.2 per cent were seen in the target four hours and only 55.9 per cent and 57.3 per cent of patients were seen on time across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Lanarkshire respectively.

At Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, only 40.6 per cent of patients were seen within the four-hour standard, resulting in 1,100 waiting over 4 hours. In NHS Lothian, 1,054 alone waited over four hours in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Politics Matters