WAITING times for treatment in Scottish hospitals are improving - but still lag behind the official targets.

New figures show half Scotland's health boards are failing to start treating cancer patients quickly enough, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Accident and emergency departments are dealing with more patients within four hours compared to the height of winter, but performance has slipped slightly.

Opposition politicians and charities have expressed concern about the pressure on NHS Scotland and the impact it is having on patients.

Janice Preston, head of Macmillan Cancer Support in Scotland, said: "It's very disappointing to see (cancer) waiting-times targets being missed again.

"While it's encouraging there has been some improvement, half of the health boards are still missing the target.

"Delays can leave patients and families very anxious and distressed, and it's vital every effort is made to ensure these targets are not missed again."

The new data, released by NHS Scotland, shows that in the last three months of 2014, 94.2 per cent of patients urgently referred to hospital began cancer treatment within 62 days. This is up on the previous quarter when performance was 93.5 per cent but behind the 95 per cent target.

Among the health boards struggling to hit the goal are NHS Grampian, at 89 per cent and NHS GGC at 93.7 per cent.

Health Secretary Shona Robison welcomed the steady rise in the number of patients starting cancer treatment more quickly, but said more needed to be done to ensure no-one was waiting unnecessarily.

Ms Robison said: "For any patient who receives a diagnosis of cancer it can be an extremely difficult time and getting fast access to specialist treatment is vitally important.

"I welcome the figures published today which show a third successive increase in the number of patients seen within the target period."

Last year the Scottish Government put in a support team and invested £2.5m to speed up access to cancer tests and treatment.

However, performance has not improved for all types of the disease.

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume said: "These sluggish improvements in performance against cancer waiting-times targets mean that too many patients are still facing long waits to begin treatment.

"The increase in treatment times for some types of cancer is a further worrying indication that the SNP has taken its eye off the ball on day-to-day services such as our NHS.

"Health boards continue to face immense pressure on staffing and beds."

Figures on accident and emergency waiting times for the week ending Sunday March 22 showed 91.7% of patients being seen, treated and either discharged or admitted to hospital within four hours. This is down from 92.2% the previous week and compares to a target of 95%. However, in February performance across the country dropped as low as 86%.

Some hospitals are struggling more than others with the Western Infirmary in Glasgow dealing with 71.7% of A&E cases in four hours - the lowest proportion in Scotland.

Across the NHS GGC area, 87.3% of patients were seen within the target time, again the lowest rate in the country.

Ms Robison said the Scottish Government had recently committed £5m of funding to the health board to help "relieve pressure".

The Health Secretary said: "Our core A&E departments across Scotland are continuing to see nine out of ten people within four hours.

"This is, of course, down to our hard-working NHS staff who are doing a fantastic job to treat people as quickly as possible."

Jenny Marra, Scottish Labour health spokeswoman, said: "We know that our doctors and nurses are working round the clock to help people, but unless the staff are given the resources they need to do their job, too many patients will continue to be let down."