WAITING time performance across Scotland’s A&E units has fallen to a new record low, with almost a third of patients not being seen on time.

The latest official figures also showed record numbers of very long waits in the week ending January 9.

The Tories said the “shameful” statistics were an indictment of the “inept stewardship" of SNP Health Secretary Humza Yousaf.

Scottish Labour said Mr Yousaf had been guilty of a "dereliction of duty" during the pandemic.

Updating MSPs on the pandemic this afternoon, Nicola Sturgeon said the figures reflected the past couple of weeks having probably been the "most difficult the NHS has ever faced as Covid-related staff absences have compounded the other pressures it was dealing with".

She added: "I would hope to see these figures start to improve in the weeks ahead."

The Public Health Scotland data show just 67.4 per cent of people were seen within the four-target, down from 71.6% the previous week, despite a fall in the number of attendances. 

The figure is the worst since comparable statistics began more than seven years ago and coincided with the Omicron Covid variant causing severe NHS staff shortages.

The previous worst performance was for the week ending October 24, at 69.6% on time.

The week ending January 9 also saw record numbers of long waits, with 2,079 people waiting more than eight hours for treatment and 690 waiting more than 12 hours.

The worst such waits until now were 1,957 and 638 respectively in the week to October 24. 

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.

It has been below 80% since mid July this year.

Besides Covid causing staff shortages, the waiting time figures also appears to have been dragged down by particularly severe problems at NHS Lanarkshire, which had the worst treatment rate in Scotland, with just 58.4% of A&E patients being seen within four hours.

NHS Borders was second worst at 58.9%, with NHS Forth Valley at 60.4%.

The poor performance was in spite of a drop in the number of A&E attendances falling in the week to January 9 to 21,163 compared to 21,862 the previous week.

Tory MSP Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “These worst-ever A&E stats are a shameful indictment of Humza Yousaf’s inept stewardship of Scotland’s NHS.

“The tragic reality is that these delays lead to needless loss of life.

“How many wake-up calls does the Health Secretary need before he finally devises a coherent strategy to tackle the unacceptable emergency waiting times in Scotland? 

“Yet his responses feel like a rearranging of the deckchairs on The Titanic.

“Instead of the detailed action plan we crave, we get desperate pleas for patients to go to GPs rather than A&E.

"This has simply added to the crisis in general practice – as we saw with the partial suspension of GP services in NHS Lanarkshire last week – while having no apparent effect on our emergency wards, which are beyond breaking point.”

Scottish Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: “This is a deeply worrying development and it is clear that thousands of lives are being put in danger.

“Week after week we have seen all-time lows in A&E services but the SNP government has failed to act.

“NHS staff are working incredibly hard, especially as the winter pressures start to bite, but they are being badly failed by a government that is not adequately supporting them in their efforts to keep the people of Scotland safe.

“The Cabinet Secretary’s lack of action in the face of this crisis has been nothing short of a dereliction of duty.

“This is unacceptable – action is needed now to stop lives being lost.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton urged Mr Yousaf to take “immediate measures”

He said: “This is shocking. People are waiting too long to get care and treatment. NHS staff are under unimaginable pressure and working in impossible conditions. It harms the mental and physical wellbeing of staff as well as patients. This is not sustainable. 

“It begs the question why SNP and Green MSPs last week voted down my party’s proposal for an urgent Burnout Prevention Strategy for NHS staff. Services and key workers need that added protection but got none.

“It is time the Health Secretary took immediate measures to help our NHS. Staff, patients and families have had enough.” 

When asked about the situation in Scotland’s A&E during a visit to a hospital in Edinburgh last week, Mr Yousaf warned of “really high staff absences” and said: “This is the most difficult period our NHS has ever faced because of the pandemic.”

He told the PA news agency: “Look at the first week of January compared to the last week in December – there was a 65% increase in the staff that were absent due to Covid related reasons.

“So there are reasons for that performance, there are reasons for that pressure.

“What we’re doing is investing significant amounts of money, and not just a £300 million pound winter package, which will help the situation, but I don’t doubt that the situation would be a lot worse had we not invested that money.”