Waiting time performance in Scotland’s A&E units fell to its lowest level in a year last week, with Glasgow's flagship site recording the worst figure of any hospital on record.
Fewer than two in five patients across Scotland were seen on time, and almost one in five waited more than eight hours.
However less than a third of patients (31.1%) attending the A&E at Glasgow’s £850m Queen Elizabeth University Hospital were seen on time, and almost a third waited more than eight hours.
Opposition parties called for the resignation or sacking of health secretary Michael Matheson and claimed the SNP’s recovery plan for the NHS had been an abject failure.
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The figures showed barely any improvement on the position 12 months ago.
Public Health Scotland reported just 59.4% of people attending casualty departments were seen within the official four-hour target, down from 60.8% the previous week.
It was the first time the figure had fallen below 60% since the week ending 8 January 2023.
The number of patients enduring extreme waits also shot up last week to levels not seen since the end of 2022.
In the seven days to January 7 this year, 4439 patients (18.1%) waited more than eight hours, up from 3226 (13.8%) the previous week.
The number waiting more than 12 hours rose from 1286 to 2223 (5.5 to 9%).
The worst performing health board last week was NHS Forth Valley, with just 39.7% of patients seen on time, followed by NHS Lanarkshire (48.3%) and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (52.8%).
The target is for 95% of patients to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
It has not been met nationally since July 2020.
Attendances rose last week from 23,447 to 24,583.
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Tory MSP Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “These woeful figures lay bare the intolerable crisis across Scotland’s A&E wards – but the situation at the flagship hospital in our largest city is catastrophic and beyond dangerous.
“It’s barely conceivable that less than one-third of patients at the Queen Elizabeth were seen within the SNP’s target of four hours. This is terrifying for patients.
“Dedicated frontline staff are not to blame for this – they are being made to carry the can for the appalling workforce planning of successive SNP health secretaries, which has left them hopelessly under-resourced.
"But, equally, the health board must be accountable for its failings, so it should be put into special measures.
“All the modelling shows us that excess delays in A&E lead to tragic and avoidable loss of life – but the distracted and discredited Michael Matheson has not just failed to get a grip on the crisis, he’s allowed it to get worse.
“If he doesn’t have the decency to resign, Humza Yousaf must show some backbone and sack him.”
Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “It may be a new year, but Scotland’s A&E departments remain engulfed in the same chaos that has become the norm under the SNP.
“We simply cannot normalise well over 2,000 Scots waiting over half a day to be seen in only one week.
“NHS staff are battling hard to keep people safe and to do their duty but the SNP government is more interested in giving new speeches that generate a lot of hot air but no new ideas for Scotland.
“The fact is that Michael Matheson has failed in his duty to protect our NHS, to protect Scots and to support staff – he must go now.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "A year after some of the worst A&E waiting times in history, we find ourselves right back there again. Humza Yousaf's NHS recovery plan appears to have had no impact on the crisis in our NHS.
"Michael Matheson has been too distracted by salvaging his career to focus on the needs of staff and patients.
"Scotland needs a government laser focused on the day job. Scottish Liberal Democrats would overhaul the NHS Recovery Plan, bring forward an urgent inquiry into the hundreds of avoidable deaths linked to the emergency care crisis and implement measures which will meaningfully tackle burnout among staff.”
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