A&E waiting times at NHS Forth Valley worst on record
A total of 686 patients at the health board were waiting longer than 4 hours
Waiting times at NHS Forth Valley A&E departments are at their worst on record.
Just 40.3% of patients were seen within the target 4 hour target for the week ending the 21st of August.
Those are the worst figures across the health boards in Scotland.
A total of 686 patients at the health board were waiting longer than 4 hours, with 344 patients waiting as long as 8 hours to be seen.
And 174 people waited more than 12 hours for treatment.
And across Scotland, the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours for treatment is at its highest ever level.
People waiting more than 12 hours highest on record
This comes as the number of people waiting more than 12 hours at Scotland's emergency departments is at its highest level, new figures show.
In the week up to August 21st, some 1,287 people waited longer than half a day before being admitted or discharged at A&E.
This figure increased from 983 the week before and rises above the previous high of 1,190 in the week up to July 3rd.
The number of people waiting longer than eight hours was also at a record high, with 3,159 recording in the same week - up from 2,880 the week before.
The Scottish Government aims to have at least 95% of patients at A&E seen and admitted or discharged within four hours, but this figure sat at just 65% in the week of July 6, the second lowest on record.
Some 9,093 of the 26,017 people attending emergency departments waited longer than four hours, according to figures from Public Health Scotland.
Pressures to continue through the winter
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf asked Scots to consider if they need to go to A&E before attending during winter, when pressure is expected to increase.
"Occupancy and staffing pressures remain high across emergency departments and continue to have an impact on the delivery of services," he said in a statement.
"Covid has not gone away but despite this, almost two-thirds of patients are being seen within four hours of arrival.
"As we begin to enter the winter period, people should consider whether their condition is an emergency, such as a stroke, heart attack or major trauma, before going to A&E. Local GPs and pharmacies can be contacted during the day for non-critical care, NHS 24 is also available day or night on 111 for non-emergency inquiries.
"Through our Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative programme we are investing £50 million to drive down waiting times, including further development of Flow Navigation Centres in every board to ensure rapid access to a clinician and scheduled appointments, where possible.
"This will avoid people waiting in A&E waiting rooms unnecessarily."
Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: "We know excess delays inevitably translate to needless deaths, which is why the record number of patients waiting more than eight hours and more than 12 hours to be seen is so alarming.
"It's completely unacceptable, and a damning indictment of SNP mismanagement, that nearly 1,300 patients in one week alone had to wait more than half a day to be seen in Scotland's emergency wards.
"Rather than seeking to lower public expectations further by warning of worse to come over the winter, the Health Secretary should be redrawing his woefully inadequate plan to prevent this crisis worsening."
While Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton urged the Health Secretary to come up with a plan to fix emergency departments ahead of Parliament returning from recess next week.
"Humza Yousaf's last significant intervention was the NHS Recovery Plan over a year ago, which wasn't worth the paper it was written on because waits have spiralled ever since," he said.
"There has been no recovery, and the minister has done nothing to reverse the decline.
"We need to see action now. He should come to Parliament next week with a new plan.
"These waits will put lives at risk. Every week we get closer to a deeper disaster in our NHS this winter.
"Yet people are being taken for granted by SNP ministers who are shifting their attentions and taxpayers' money to independence."