Nurses have accused the Scottish Government of trying to score political points over the NHS in England while Scotland's health service is "creaking at the seams".
A Government press release on NHS figures which revealed 88% of patients were seen at accident and emergency within four hours this winter, compared with 83% in England, "boomeranged badly" after nurses accused the SNP of "missing the point".
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said such figures would give little comfort to patients whose cancer surgery or hip replacements were cancelled to clear a bed for an incoming emergency patient.
Beds have been opened up for A&E patients without the required number of nurses to look after them, RCN Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said.
The SNP's political opponents called the release "crass", insisting a significant drop in the number of patients seen within four hours from last year was "hardly worth celebrating".
Health Secretary Shona Robison acknowledged that the current winter has been "particularly challenging" for the NHS, praised the Scottish Government's actions and investment to date but said "we must improve our performance".
Ms Fyffe said: "Political point scoring on targets is all well and good but if one of the reasons Scotland's A&Es are performing against the four-hour target less badly than their counterparts in England is because patients are having surgery cancelled, it somewhat misses the point.
"Our concern should be about patient care, not numbers."
She added: "The whole system is creaking at the seams and the last few weeks have seen a perfect storm of conditions that demonstrate just how perilous the state of the NHS is.
"Future plans for the integration of health and social care are not going to be the panacea that some people seem to think they will be - simply better integrating care is not going to reduce demand.
"That's exactly why we think the Scottish Government should review the whole of the health and social care system to find different ways of providing services and putting the whole system on a sustainable footing."
Ms Robison said: "The winter months bring increased pressure on the heath service and these figures show that this year's Christmas period was a particularly challenging time for our A&E services and across our NHS.
"It is clear we must improve our performance - both in winter and year round - which is why we'll go on increasing investment, improving systems and protecting staffing levels."
She added: "We've already legislated for the integration of health and social care from this April.
"Of course, more must be done to deliver sustainable change and we are working with partners to make sure this happens."
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: "Waiting times results of 88.8% are hardly worth celebrating, as the Scottish Government seems to want to.
"That's a significant drop on last year, and well below its own artificially reduced target of 95%."
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume said: "This is incredible. The SNP in the Scottish Government are entirely responsible for the delivery of health in Scotland but once again they are trying to deflect attention to south of the border.
"This crass approach has boomeranged badly on SNP ministers."
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