Almost 300 Scots forced to wait more than 48 hours in A&E
Labour’s Jackie Baillie said Scots are suffering agonising waits
Almost 300 Scots were forced to wait more than 48 hours in A&E departments in 2025, figures show.
A freedom of information request by Scottish Labour revealed 275 people waited longer than 48 hours between January and August last year.
During the same period, 1,380 people waited for more than 36 hours, and 7,965 faced waits of more than 24 hours to get help.
The number of people facing lengthy waits has risen significantly over the last six years, with just 12 people having to wait more than 48 hours in 2019. This rose to 49 in 2021 but has since skyrocketed to 396 in 2022, 201 in 2023 and 323 in 2024.
Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “Nowhere is the SNP’s failure clearer than in our NHS. After 18 years in charge, Scots are suffering agonising waits in A&E, desperate to get help.
“Despite the spin from John Swinney and Neil Gray – who claim the NHS is heading in the right direction – it is obvious that our health service is nowhere near where it needs to be, with people unable to quickly access help in their time of greatest need.
“Patients are having to suffer, and staff are being let down, because of the SNP’s abject failure to get to grips with this crisis, with taxpayers paying the price for the utter incompetence of ministers.
“The truth is that our NHS won’t survive a third decade of this tired, knackered and out-of-touch SNP government.”
It comes after John Swinney insisted the Scottish Government is “making the headway that’s required” on NHS waiting times, despite having to clear 78,000 year-long waits by March to hit a key pledge.
The First Minister previously said year-long waits for treatment will be wiped out by this spring, but the pace of clearing the backlog makes it difficult for the promise to be met.
The most recent figures showed 78,587 open waits of more than 52 weeks on October 31, with the latest statistics due to be released in early January.
The number of year-long waits had come down in the most recent release, with outpatient waits falling from 56,189 to 51,319, and inpatient or day case treatment down to 27,268.
Health Secretary Neil Gray said: "We recognise the significant pressures facing our emergency departments and are grateful to all NHS staff working tirelessly to care for patients during what we know will be a challenging winter.
“Our £20 million investment is increasing social care capacity and strengthening support at emergency department front doors to ease pressure and reduce admissions.
"We are working closely with health boards to improve patient flow and tackle delayed discharges, ensuring sufficient community capacity to support people who are medically fit to leave hospital.
“Health is at the heart of our Budget which provides record funding of £21.7 billion. To protect the NHS's long-term future sustainably, we also plan to invest in a range of reforms including shifting care from acute to community settings, dedicating £531 million to general practice over three years and expanding Hospital at Home capacity to 2,000 beds by end of 2026.”
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