The number of patients left "languishing" in hospital accident and emergency units has more than trebled in some parts of Scotland, according to Labour.
Leader Johann Lamont accused First Minister Alex Salmond of not caring about the issue as the two rivals clashed at Holyrood.
The Labour leader previously challenged him about accident and emergency waiting times after 84-year-old John McGarrity was said to have spent eight hours on a trolley in a corridor at Glasgow's Western Infirmary.
Ms Lamont now says freedom of information requests to health boards across Scotland shows "the number of people languishing in A&E is increasing".
She told Mr Salmond: "In John McGarrity's area of Glasgow, the number of patients who waited over four hours to be seen has more than trebled, going up from 10,100 in 2009 to 31,700 this year.
"Let's look across Scotland. In NHS Lanarkshire, the Health Secretary's own back yard, the number of patients waiting more than four hours in A&E has also more than trebled.
"In Grampian, the First Minister's own back yard, there was a 1,300 increase in patients waiting more than four hours in A&E compared to last year."
Mr Salmond told her that the Government increased resource spending for the NHS despite "extraordinary financial pressure".
This would not have happened under Labour which is in no "position to pose as the defender of the National Health Service", he said.
The First Minister also highlighted £50 million of funding announced by Health Secretary Alex Neil earlier this year to try to shorten emergency treatment times and improve patient care.
This action was the "correct response to pressures we have seen over this winter" in the health service, he said.
The figures given to Labour show that in Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS in 2012-13, patients waited in A&E longer than the four hours in 31,747 cases, up from 10,123 in 2009-10.
People waiting for a hospital bed comprised 9,492 of the last year's total.
Not all health boards provided Labour with information.
In Grampian the number of breaches of waiting time limits almost doubled between 2010-11 and 2012-13, rising from 2,554 to 5,010.
In NHS Lanarkshire the number went from 3,204 in 2009-10 to 10,404 in 2011-12.
Ms Lamont, speaking during First Minister's Questions, said: "In February I asked the First Minister about the case of 84-year-old John McGarrity who was left for eight hours on a hospital trolley in a corridor, having been admitted with chest pains.
"Can the First Minister tell me does he know if the number of people left on trolleys is getting better or worse? I presumed when I raised this with him in February he investigated occurrences like this."
The Labour leader again asked: "Can he tell me has the situation got better or worse?"
Mr Salmond insisted that the "situation in terms of treatment in the National Health Service overall is improving"
He said: "On individual cases where treatment is less than satisfactory, of course they are looked at seriously, of course they are taken into account.
"But Johann Lamont, in pursuing these individual cases, should not deflect from the case that overall treatment - in terms of the times waiting for treatment, in terms of the efficacy of treatment, in terms of the number of people being treated - is improving in the National Health Service.
"I think that's an enormous tribute to to the staff and commitment of our National Health Service in what are inevitably difficult times."
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