SCOTTISH Labour leader Jim Murphy has called on ministers to apologise to patients affected by the "A&E crisis" in Scotland.

As he prepared to visit the troubled Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, where the Scottish Government sent in a special support team this week because queues for beds are so bad ,Mr Murphy said the SNP had known about the problems for months.

The East Renfrewshire MP said the number of concerns raised with him about the hospital, which is used by many of his constituents, had been rising since before Christmas.

Now it has emerged two patients have fallen from trolleys and injured themselves in the A&E department in the last six months.

The Scottish Government announced they were taking action to help the hospital after The Herald contacted them about these incidents.

Mr Murphy, who is due to visit the hospital with local Labour MPs Douglas Alexander and West Dunbartonshire MP Gemma Doyle, said: "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Shona Robison get a weekly update from the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) in Paisley already. They have known about these problems for months.

"It was not until The Herald and others highlighted what was going on that they finally chose to act. They should not only send in a support team. The time for excuses has run out and it is time for an apology."

The latest publicly available figures show nearly a quarter of patients had been delayed four hours or more in the A&E department at the RAH. Under the Scottish Government's target just 5% of patients should wait this long.

But it is not the only hospital struggling with the number of people backing-up on trolleys in A&E because there are insufficient beds for them on the wards. The Western Infirmary has the poorest performance for emergency room waiting times in Scotland with a third of patients - 1470 people - detained for more than four hours in December. Most hospitals are missing the target and there are tales of queues of patients on trolleys from both sides of the country as well as South of the Border.

Mr Murphy said in England ministers had taken their eye off the ball because of "the expensive re-organisation of the NHS" and in Scotland last year the Scottish Government concentrated 100% on the referendum "and now patients are paying the price."

Jim Hume, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman, also said the SNP's attention had been elsewhere and they were now attempting to "whitewash the growing crisis".

He continued: "The reality is that the crisis in emergency care is worsening - not improving. Why were the public only told about the extent of the situation facing the Royal Alexandra Hospital once the Scottish Government sent in an emergency support team?

"People will understandably be concerned that other hospitals could be on the brink of a similar situation."

Paul Gray, chief executive of NHS Scotland has apologised to patients who have suffered long hospital waits since the winter began. In a statement about the RAH support team, he continued: "I recognise that all staff have been working extremely hard in our NHS to ensure patients get the best possible care. However, I'm concerned that performance is not recovering as quickly as it should at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and it is clear to me, through our performance monitoring and management, that the board needs support to help them ensure patients are seen and treated in A&E within the appropriate timescale."

Robert Calderwood, chief executive of health board NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which runs the RAH, said a lot had been learned about improving the flow of patients through A&Es in recent months and he was hopeful the RAH could benefit from some of this experience.