Scottish Government under fire over ‘swelling’ queues in A&E

The Scottish Government has come under fire from opposition parties over “swelling” queues in A&E.

More than a third of A&E patients in Scotland were forced to wait longer than four hours to be seen, and more than 1,400 people waited more than 12 hours for care at the end of May, according to the latest figures.

After a couple of months of start-and-stop improvements in the spring, the wait times in accident and emergency departments across Scotland have been worsening in recent weeks.

Only 65.5% of people (18,371) were seen within four hours at A&E during the week ending June 1 2025, compared to 67.1% (19,172) the previous week

More than a third of patients were forced to wait more than four hours for care at the end of May, with 1,416 people were left waiting for more than 12 hours.

This is higher than the 1,131 (4%) of patients waiting more than 12 hours the previous week.

On Tuesday, the Scottish Government came under fire from opposition parties over “swelling” A&E queues.

“The queues are swelling at A&E and the SNP has no realistic plan to get them down. Patients are crammed into hospital corridors while staff are trying to prop up a broken system,” Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said.

“Our NHS needs a new direction – Scottish Labour will reduce A&E queues by restoring the family doctor and freeing up hospital beds so patients can get the treatment they need.”

The Scottish Tories slammed the health secretary for “burying his head in the sand”.

“John Swinney and Neil Gray are trying to pretend that our NHS has turned a corner, but the reality is things are awful – and getting worse,” Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP said.

“It’s shameful that more than a third of patients are waiting longer than four hours to be seen during summer, when the pressure on A&E departments should be easing.”

Gulhane added: “Neil Gray can’t keep burying his head in the sand. He needs to show some common sense and back our plan to slash NHS red tape, cut middle managers and guarantee resources will get to frontline care services.”

However, the health secretary said that “Scotland’s core A&E sites have been the best performing in the UK for a decade”.

“Our emergency departments are facing sustained pressure with high levels of hospital occupancy impacting patient flow and causing delays,” Gray said.

“This situation is not unique to Scotland with all UK nations experiencing similar pressures.”

He continued: “Current A&E performance is below the levels we all wish to see and we are determined to drive improvements.

“We want to shift the balance of care from acute to community and to do this we will deliver direct access to specialist frailty teams in every emergency department by summer 2025 and expand Hospital at Home to at least 2,000 beds by the end of 2026.”