THE Scottish Government is to send in a support team following a sharp rise in the number of people waiting for Accident & Emergency treatment at Scotland's newest hospital.

The percentage of patients at the New South Glasgow Hospital waiting longer than the target time increased from 17% to 22%, with almost 400 people waiting more than four hours.

Concerns about the hospital have been raised since it opened last month with staff and patients warning of chaos.

Health Secretary, Shona Robison, said the move had gone smoothly and to schedule but admitted extra help was needed to reduce the A & E delays.

She said: "Performance against the four hour target in accident and emergency has dipped and is some way off the national average.

"We always expected there to be some initial challenges around performance as staff from all three sites got used to working in their new environment, however in the interests of patients in Glasgow, we have agreed with the board to offer the considerable expertise in unscheduled care at our disposal."

The number of patients seen at the hospitals A&E increased from 1420 in the week ending May 31 to 1743 in the first week of June.

However the number s waiting more than four hour increased at a faster rate from 238 to 378, more than 50 a day.