Aileen Campbell '˜has her facts wrong about A&E targets'

A row over the Scottish Government's stewardship of the NHS erupted last night after Labour accused a Scottish Government minister of getting her facts 'completely wrong' over waiting times.

Campbell: accused of making misleading public. Picture: Lisa McPhillips

Labour’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar criticised Public Health Minister Aileen Campbell for saying the Scottish Government was “hitting our waiting time targets” for Accident and Emergency.

Campbell made the claim when interviewed by the BBC’s Nick Robinson on Radio 4’s Today programme. Robinson pointed out that official figures showed the Scottish Government’s target of 95 per cent of cases being seen within four hours was being missed.

The latest figures show eight health boards missed the target with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde recording the poorest performance at 87.7 per cent, followed by NHS Lanarkshire at 89.7 per cent.

Sarwar said: “Aileen Campbell has misled people and got her facts completely wrong.”

The response of a spokesperson for the Public Health Minister was: “The minister made a simple error, unlike Mr Sarwar’s party, whose manifesto pledged to spend less on the NHS compared with the SNP’s promise to spend £500m more than inflation.”