Craig Hoy, a Conservative MSP for South Scotland, has raised his concerns to Scotland’s Health Secretary as the latest figures show that only 67.7% of Accident and Emergency patients in the Borders were seen within four hours of attending.
This was worse than last week, and significantly below the 95 per cent target for patients to be seen.
Across Scotland only 75.1 per cent of patients were seen, the third week in a row that waiting times had plummeted to a record low.
It has been 11 months since the 95 per cent target was last met in the Borders.
Craig is urging the SNP Health Secretary Humza Yousaf to heed the warnings in the Borders and ensure waiting times do not completely spiral out of control.
Craig commented: “The growing pressure on A&E services at Borders General Hospital is a real cause for concern, and I worry that waiting times throughout Scotland may now have reached breaking point.
“Alarm bells have been ringing for the Scottish Government to act for some time.
“The Scottish Conservatives have been calling for a £2 billion investment in the NHS since April, with an additional £600 million fund dedicated to tackling A&E waiting times.
“Our calls for further investment have fallen on deaf ears by Scottish government ministers, and we have yet to see any money being set aside to tackle this crisis in our Accident and Emergency departments.
“As well as this, the recent NHS Recovery Plan simply arrived too late to prevent this crisis in the Borders and now waiting times are threatening to completely spiral out of control.
“I will be writing to the Health Secretary, Humza Yousaf, and the Chief Executive of NHS Borders to ask them to outline the steps that they will be taking to ensure waiting times are reduced and frontline A&E staff at the Borders General Hospital are not overworked.
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