Nearly 70% of patients at Scotland’s emergency departments were seen within the four-hour target – but waiting times continue to fall below the Scottish Government target.

Figures released by Public Health Scotland (PHS) showed that in the week up to April 30, 69.7% of attendances at accident and emergency (A&E) departments were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

It is an increase on last week’s 66.2%, recorded on the week ending April 23.

However, the Scottish Government’s 95% target has not been met since July 2020, with 70.2% – the highest of the year – recorded in January.

Meanwhile, of the 24,746 attendances at A&E in the week ending April 30, 1,950 patients spent more than eight hours waiting for treatment, while a further 623 waited longer than 12 hours.

Health Secretary Michael Matheson said the figures showed a decline of more than one third of patients waiting eight hours or longer.

He said: “We are supporting health boards as they continue to manage the significant pressure that remains on services right across the health and social care system.

“These statistics show a 33.3% decrease in the number of patients waiting longer than 12 hours in A&E, and a decrease of 26.5% in those waiting longer than 8 hours.

“This is welcome and we thank staff in all our emergency departments for their outstanding effort every day of the week.

“The Scottish Government is providing ongoing support to boards in a range of areas, including discharge planning to ensure patients are seen in the right place at the right time without delay.”

But Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the “modest improvement” in waiting times “should not be a cause for celebration for Humza Yousaf or his successor as health secretary, Michael Matheson”.

The Tory MSP said: “The SNP Government are still miles off meeting their A&E targets and it is fast approaching three years since they last did so.

“Hundreds of patients are continuing to languish in A&E for over half a day, despite us being well into the spring period.

“These figures continue to highlight the disastrous legacy of Humza Yousaf’s time as health secretary and the total failure of his flimsy recovery plan in remobilising frontline services.”

He insisted: “There can be no room for complacency among SNP ministers as patients continue to suffer in our hospitals week after week on their watch.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said “we cannot afford to normalise” the crisis in the NHS.

“Issues in primary and social care as well as delayed discharge have a knock-on effect in our emergency departments, leaving them in chaos and putting hardworking staff under immense pressure,” she added.

“Mr Matheson was left a tremendous mess by his predecessor, but it is now up to him to put the people of Scotland first and fix this mess once and for all.

“He must act now to fix the problems facing primary and social care, end delayed discharge, and work to restore our NHS after years of SNP mismanagement.”