HUMZA Yousaf has been told to get back to the day job after new figures showed Scots were still suffering eye-watering long waits in A&E.

Just 64.4 per cent of all patients presenting at casualty were seen within the four hour target time-frame in the week to February 19.

That’s down from 67.9% in the previous week.

At the flagship Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, just 41.3% of patients were seen on time.

The Scottish Government’s target for 95% of patients to be seen and subsequently discharged or admitted within four hours, has not been met since July 2020. 

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The data shows 1,133 people waited longer than 12 hours, up from 974 the week before and the highest number since mid-January.

A further 2,627 of the 23,708 attendances at A&E in the latest week waited more than eight hours, and 8,431 waited more than four hours – an increase of almost 1,000 from the previous week.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the health secretary needed to spell out what he would do differently if he was to move into Bute House. 

“To much fanfare, Humza Yousaf touted his NHS Recovery Plan as the plan which would finally see improvements made in tackling the crisis in our A&E departments.

"This has completely failed. On his watch, we have seen the worst A&E wait times on record.  

“People will no doubt want to know what Humza Yousaf would do differently if he became First Minister.

"He cannot continue to oppose our constructive proposals such as an urgent inquiry into the hundreds of avoidable deaths linked to the emergency care crisis, a burnout prevention strategy and a health and social care staff assembly.”

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Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the waits were “completely unacceptable.” 

“We know that excess delays lead, tragically, to avoidable deaths,” hee added. 

“We were told by Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf that they were getting on top of the winter A&E crisis – but this is the third week running that things have got worse.

“The health secretary continues to let down exhausted NHS staff and worried patients. He needs to spend less time on his SNP leadership bid and more time focused on fixing the numerous problems in Scotland’s health service.”