Scotland NHS crisis: New A&E performance figures are 'an embarrassment for Humza Yousaf'

Figures showing NHS Scotland’s A&E performance over the past four years are an “embarrassment for Humza Yousaf” and “indicative of his failure” as health secretary, according to opposition figures.

The new First Minister, having won the bitterly-contested SNP leadership election, now faces added scrutiny over his tenure as the health secretary in Nicola Sturgeon’s Government.

The latest A&E performance figures, published by Public Health Scotland (PHS), show that over a four-year period, from March 2020 to this month, the percentage of patients being seen within four hours at emergency departments across NHS Lothian has fallen by more than a third.

NHS Lothian is now the fifth-worst ranked health board in terms of A&E performance, with 60 per cent of patients being seen within four hours.

Newly elected leader of the Scottish National Party, Humza Yousaf. (Photo by Jane Barlow - Pool/Getty Images)

Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian, Miles Briggs, said the figures were “indicative” of NHS Scotland’s performance under Mr Yousaf as a whole, as across NHS Scotland, the percentage of patients being seen within four hours has dropped from 92.2 per cent to 62.9 per cent over the same period.

“The figures are an embarrassment for Humza Yousaf and are indicative of the extent to which he failed in his role as health secretary,” Mr Briggs said.

“It is completely unacceptable that in the space of three years, the percentage seen within fours hours dropped almost 35 percentage points from 94.6 per cent to 60 per cent in Lothian.

“Despite being well into the swing of spring, the figures for Lothian are now worse than at the peak winter times. In taking his eye off the ball and doing his best to appease the independence hardliners during the leadership contest, Lothian and Scotland’s figures have deteriorated further.

“While as health secretary [Mr Yousaf] was clearly unable to find a solution to the mess he created, one of his first priorities as the new First Minister must be to get on top of the situation and find someone who can clear up the disaster that he presided over.”

For the week ending March 19, just 62.9 per cent of emergency department attendances were seen and admitted, transferred, or discharged within the four-hour standard across Scotland.

During the week, 3,344 patients languished in A&E for more than eight hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged, and a further 1,382 people were left waiting in pain for more than 12 hours in an emergency department, despite the Scottish Government target of seeing all patients within four hours.

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the figures “are a humiliation for Humza Yousaf on the day that he’s promoted to First Minister”. He described Mr Yousaf’s time as health secretary as a “failed tenure”.

He said: “One of his first priorities as First Minister must be to belatedly get on top of the NHS crisis he presided over as health secretary.”

Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said Mr Yousaf was “leaving an abysmal record of failure in his wake”. She said whoever succeeded him as health secretary “cannot surely do a worse job than Humza Yousaf, who was the worst health secretary in the history of devolution”.