WAITING times have risen in accident and emergency departments, with insiders saying the longer Christmas holidays could be partially to blame.

Hospitals which appeared to be coping well with patient numbers during December have been struggling to find enough beds for people during the last seven days.

Patients in some areas have faced longer delays on trolleys waiting for spaces on wards to become available.

Staff are said to be disappointed by the situation, as the winter had gone relatively smoothly so far with no repeat of the crisis which dominated the start of last year and 2012/13.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said a rise in the number of patients who needed treatment for respiratory illness was behind the problem.

But it is understood it is not the only health board affected and some clinicians are questioning whether there are other factors apart from rising patient admissions to blame.

One A&E consultant, who did not wish to be named, said that with Christmas and New Year falling on Fridays, eight days of public holiday had had an impact on progressing the care of patients in hospital beds. It is not just GP surgeries which shut during this period. Other departments such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social services and patient transport run with reduced staff.

The consultant said: "Our system is very efficient. If everyone is there it works well, but it cannot take the impact of taking out a percentage of the workforce."

He compared the situation to a restaurant continuing to serve meals when it had gone a few days without doing the washing up.

He said there was inevitably a lot of annual leave in January and February, with staff needing to be at home with children during school holidays and the system needed to acknowledge this would have an impact and plan accordingly.

"The health service lurches from school holiday to school holiday," he said.

The latest figures, which date from the week ending Sunday January 3, show almost 93 per cent of patients being dealt with in A&E departments within the four-hour target and no-one waiting more than 12 hours. This is much better than the same time last year.

However, at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley almost one in five patients waited too long and it is understood capacity struggled further last week.

Jackie Baillie, Labour spokeswoman on public services, said: "Despite the best efforts of hardworking staff, the A&E service at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley is in crisis yet again.

"There are no beds available to accommodate new admissions, patients are waiting too long on trolleys for treatment and ambulances are being diverted to other hospitals."

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: "Recent years show us that the first few weeks of the year are always when A&E performance is under most pressure. However, we have record investment and increased staffing in place to help meet demand through this winter period.

"A&E waiting times have consistently been better than last year and we are working closely with health boards to minimise any dips in performance."

A Scottish Government spokesman added: "Scotland’s A&E departments are still performing better than last year. In the most recent 10 weeks performance was 94.3 per cent - up five percentage points from the equivalent period last year.

"Of course, we always assess performance over winter and we will work with health boards to understand the reasons behind dips in performance. For example, we did exactly that last year and published a full view of winter performance.”