‘Permanent crisis’ in A&E caused 'disgracefully high' thousands of Scottish deaths in 2024

​The Scottish Government has been accused of having responsibility for a "disgracefully high" number of deaths following growing waits for treatment in hospital accident-and-emergency departments.

Both Labour and the Conservatives hit out at the SNP administration, claiming thousands of patients had died after spending hours in A&E.

It comes as First Minister John Swinney declared he was having “good discussions” with all political parties over passing the draft Scottish budget, which contains a record £21 billion in funding for the NHS and social care.

First Minister John Swinney during his visit to NHS 24 call centre in Dundee. Picture: Alan Richardson/PA Wire

And the First Minister also used a visit yesterday to a NHS 24 call centre to urge Scots to only call the service over the busy Christmas and New Year period if it is “absolutely necessary”.

Labour have claimed "negligence" from the SNP has meant ministers are "gambling with Scots' lives".

The accusation comes after findings from the Institute of Fiscal Studies published last month revealed hospital activity in Scotland “remains substantially below pre-pandemic levels” and has not shown a recovery, as has started to happen south of the Border.

Citing research from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, which says there will be one additional death for every 72 patients who wait between eight and 12 hours in A&E, the Tories claimed there could have been a "shocking" 2,181 excess deaths this year.

First Minister John Swinney with call handler Angela Martin, during his visit to the NHS 24 call centre in Dundee. Picture: Alan Richardson/PA Wire

The Conservatives said they based their calculations on the 226,328 patients who waited more than eight hours in the emergency room for treatment in 2024.

Meanwhile, Labour claimed 147,223 Scots had waited more than eight hours to be seen in A&E and then be admitted, transferred or discharged over the period January to October – with the party calculating this would equate to as many as 2,045 excess deaths.

It comes after official statistics from Public Health Scotland showed just under three out of five patients (59.7 per cent) in A&E were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within the target time of four hours in the week ending December 8 .

Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the SNP had created a "permanent crisis" in accident and emergency departments.

The Tory MSP, who is also a GP, called it a "damning indictment of the SNP's mismanagement of Scotland's NHS over the last 17 years".

Dr Gulhane said: "It is shocking that these excessive delays at A&E are estimated to have resulted in over 2,100 deaths since last Christmas and my thoughts are with those who have lost a loved one.

"The SNP are presiding over a permanent crisis in A&E departments and successive SNP health secretaries have failed to get a grip of increasingly appalling waiting times."

Demanding action from Health Secretary Neil Gray, Dr Gulhane said: "This disgracefully high number of excess deaths must show Neil Gray that he must change his current approach.

"He needs to urgently ensure that money invested in the health service is getting to the front line rather than being wasted on bureaucracy and middle managers."

Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: "For all the stories of exhausting and anxious waits in Scotland's emergency departments, there are those who never lived to tell the tale."

She added: "The SNP's negligence is doing more than causing frustration – they are gambling with Scots' lives.

"The UK Labour government has delivered a record Budget settlement for Scotland, but it's up to the SNP to ensure it goes on frontline services, so that every patient has an equal chance of getting the treatment they need."

Mr Swinney, who visited a NHS 24 call centre in Dundee yesterday, said around a quarter of the calls to the 111 service were unnecessary, suggesting the issue could have been dealt with by reading the self-help guides on the NHS Inform website instead.

“The NHS’s ‘Right Care Right Place’ campaign encourages people to use the many digital resources available to obtain information about the health circumstances they might be experiencing,” he said.

“They should only call organisations like NHS 24 when it is absolutely necessary to do so.

“If we all follow the Right Care Right Place approach, we can help to reduce the demand on the health service which is particularly intense during the holiday period.”

In the 2025/26 Scottish Budget, Finance Secretary Shona Robison set aside a record £21bn – a third of the Government’s entire funding pot – for the health service.

The SNP is now a minority government in Holyrood, meaning they need to rely on the support of other political parties to get the Budget passed. It is widely expected this support will come from either the Lib Dems or the Greens.

Speaking to The Scotsman, Mr Swinney said the negotiations had not yet concluded, but he added: “There have been good discussions with all parties and I would simply make the point that there is a good Budget settlement there across all areas and the Government is very happy to engage in specific discussions about any changes that parties want to see.

“But we need to attract more support to get the Budget passed by Parliament – it’s vital that happens. Without the Budget being passed, then the Budget settlement for the NHS cannot be implemented and that’s when we’ll see real difficulties as a consequence.”

The First Minister said the draft Budget statement has gone down well with frontline clinicians in the health service, adding “There’s a recognition the Government has put a strong settlement in place, but obviously we need to make sure that settlement will meet the needs and expectations of people in Scotland.”

Mr Gray said of existing NHS pressures: "My sympathies go to anyone bereaved after loved ones endured long A&E waits.

"We've always recognised the relationship between long A&E waits and increased risk of harm, which is why we remain committed to delivering improved performance."

The Health Secretary added: "Scotland's core A&E departments have been the best performing in the UK for the last eight years. However, health services everywhere face huge pressure following the pandemic – and ours is no exception.

"The number of deaths from all causes in all locations, however, is lower than we would expect to see based on historic trends, according to National Records of Scotland."