iStockAccident and emergency attendances are at their highest since before coronavirus was discovered in Scotland, the latest NHS figures reveal.
The last week in May saw 26,115 Scots attend an A&E department, the most since the final week of February 2020.
Of those, 85.7.% were seen and admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours – below the Scottish Government target of 95%.
The figures, published by Public Health Scotland, also show 410 patients spent more than eight hours waiting to be seen at an A&E department, while a further 109 patients waited longer than 12 hours.
In the first month of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Scotland was put into lockdown, A&E patient numbers plummeted to a record low of 11,059.
Attendances gradually increased to a summer high of 24,050 in mid-August, before dropping back below 16,000 in January during the second wave of Covid-19 when restrictions were at their strictest.
But since the end of January, A&E attendances have increased in all but four weeks.
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