Sturgeon considers weekly A&E data

Ms Sturgeon conceded the NHS has "still got work to do" in reducing A&E waiting times, but pledged: "This Government will support them in doing it."

She said Scottish Government officials are now looking at whether A&E performance figures should be published every week - as happens in England.

The NHS had until recently published the figures every three months, with this only just changed to monthly publication.

The SNP leader said: "I want us to be as open as possible with the public.

"As of now, we are moving to monthly publication instead of quarterly publication of A&E stats, and I can tell the chamber today that I have asked officials to look at the possibility of moving to weekly publication."

She insisted: "We have nothing to hide. Our health service and A&E departments are working under pressure, we all know that, but this Government is determined to support them in making the improvements that people have a right to see."

Ms Sturgeon had been pressed on the performance of A&E departments at First Minister's Questions at Holyrood, with both Scottish Labour deputy leader Kezia Dugdale and the party's health spokeswoman Jenny Marra raising the issue.

Ms Dugdale said that while improvements to the NHS had been made since devolution, the "reality" under the SNP Government was that the number of Scots waiting more than 12 hours in accident and emergency had increased by 170% since 2008.

"That's pensioners sitting in cold waiting rooms hoping they will get called next, it's worried parents waiting hours for their child to get the treatment they need," she stated.

"It's a full-blown A&E crisis on the SNP's watch."

Ms Marra accused the Scottish Government of having "downgraded" its target for dealing with A&E patients within four hours from 98% to 95%.

But Ms Sturgeon - a former health secretary - insisted: "The Scottish Government's aim for 98% of emergency patients to be treated, admitted or discharged remains in place."

She told MSPs: "Scotland, I think, is the only part of the UK that has a target of 98%.

"What we have said is that we need to get health boards performing sustainably at 95% as an interim target and then take them to 98%."

In October and November last year, performance against the four-hour target was at 91.8%, while in December it fell to 89.9%.

Ms Dugdale pressed Ms Sturgeon to reveal how many patients had had to wait more than four hours, eight hours and 12 hours before they were treated.

As well as saying the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours had increased by 170% since 2008, Ms Dugdale claimed there had been a 400% rise in those waiting over eight hours.

She said: "Think what that means - it's a worker losing the equivalent of a whole day as they wait in A&E waiting to be seen. It was 10,000 Scots in 2014 alone."

She went on to say that last year, more than 120,000 Scots waited more than four hours in A&E departments, adding: "That's enough people to fill Hampden Park and Murrayfield and still have some left over."

She went on: "The SNP's record on A&E is one of failure, we know from this week's figures that A&Es in Scotland are performing even worse than David Cameron's ones in England.

"They claim the NHS is a priority, but this is the First Minister who gave up running the NHS to run the referendum."

Ms Dugdale said the First Minister must now "get a grip of the crisis in Scotland's A&E".

Ms Sturgeon countered: "I do not deny we have work to do in our health service, we have work to do in our accident and emergency departments, there were a record number of people admitted to our hospitals through accident and emergency in December last year.

"The demographics of our country and indeed every part of the UK mean more people are being admitted to hospital in a sicker state and requiring hospital stays, that is the reality we're dealing with.

"Which is why since this Government took office the health budget has increased by £3 billion, there are almost three times the number of accident and emergency consultants working in our National Health Service."

She also recalled previous Labour proposals to close the A&E units at Monklands and Ayr hospitals, saying: "Of course there are two accident and emergency departments that together have treated almost one million patients since this Government took office that Labour would have closed if they had won the 2007 election."

Ms Sturgeon said that in 2013-14, there were 99,152 patients who waited longer than four hours in A&E, admitting: "That is not good enough."

But she said: "In 2006-07, the last year Labour were in government, 125,753 waited longer than four hours. So our NHS has still got work to do, this Government will support them in doing it. But we will not go back to the bad old days of Labour."

With Labour likely to make the state of the NHS a key issue in the run-up to May's general election, Ms Sturgeon said: "Let me say this to Labour - bring it on."