A HUGE spike in the numbers of patients facing delays in treatment at accident and emergency departments has been highlighted by Labour at Holyrood.

Labour leader Johann Lamont sprung new statistics on Alex Salmond at First Minister's Questions, putting him on the back foot by citing figures released under freedom of information which showed those "languishing" in A&E departments had trebled in some parts of the country.

She challenged the First Minister about A&E 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 says Freedom of Information requests to health boards across Scotland showed 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 backyard, the number of patients waiting more than four hours in A&E has also more than trebled.

"In Grampian, the First Minister's own backyard, there was a 1300 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 insisted.

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," adding: "The capacity of our accident and emergency units has substantially increased under this Government, the number of diagnoses and treatments carried out in hospitals, in A&E departments, are up by 6% since 2006-07 under this Government.

"And that has been able to be done because the resource budget of the National Health Service in Scotland has increased under this Government, despite the extra-ordinary financial pressures imposed from Westminster."

This would not have happened under Labour, he said, because the party refused to pledge to protect the NHS budget in the run-up to both the 2007 and the 2011 Holyrood elections.

But Ms Lamont countered: "If the First Minister ever made it out of Bute House to the real world and met a patient waiting for treatment on a trolley, we can assume he would reflect as the person was lying in front of him and say, 'Listen, you are more satisfied with the NHS than ever before'."