NHS in Scotland 'fighting for its life' as A&E waiting times in hospitals continue to soar

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The NHS in Scotland is "fighting for its life" after another dire set of monthly figures revealed the severe pressure hospitals continue to face.The number of Scots waiting more than 12 hours to be seen in an A&E ward reached the highest level on record in January.Public Health Scotland figures show 8,857 people waited more than half a day in A&E – accounting for 7.2 per cent of all attendances – up from 6,644 in December.The figure’s previous highest level was in December 2022, when it was 8,821.Patients whose discharge was delayed also spent a combined total of 57,860 days in hospital in January, an increase on the same period last year.Operations continue to lag well below pre-pandemic levels, with the number of operations planned in January 16.2 per cent lower than the same month in 2020.Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour health spokeswoman, said: "The new Health Secretary has been put in charge of an NHS that is fighting for its life."This chaos is not just the handiwork of Michael Matheson or Humza Yousaf before him – it is the culmination of 17 years of SNP incompetence."Patients are being left stranded for hours on end because overstretched A&Es simply cannot cope."Years after the SNP pledged to end the practice, sky-high levels of delayed discharge continue to pile added pressure on struggling hospitals and undermine patient wellbeing."Despite the extraordinary efforts of NHS staff, hospitals simply cannot cope with the number of planned operations still well below pre-pandemic, whilst hundreds of patients are getting operations cancelled at the last minute."Neil Gray has a huge challenge ahead to tackle this crisis and bring our NHS back from the brink, but it is essential that he does so."Gray was handed the