Scotland's A&E waiting time performance has hit a record low for a fourth week in a row, with more than a quarter of patients waiting more than four hours to be seen.
Of the 25,577 who attended Accident and Emergency during the final week of August just 74.2 per cent of people were admitted, transferred or discharged within the four-hour target time.
The Scottish Government target is for 95 per cent of all A&E patients to wait no longer than four hours to be seen, although it has not been met since July 2020.
But in the week ending August 29, there were 7,105 people left waiting for longer than the target time - the highest number since records began in 2015.
Of those, 1,498 patients spent more than eight hours in A&E and 418 patients waited more than 12 hours.
It is the fourth week running that the record waits have got worse, declining from 76.5 per cent of patients seen in the target time during the first week of August to 76 per cent and then to 75.1 per cent.
Across Scotland, NHS Forth Valley was once again the worst-performing health board, with 57 per cent of the 1,167 patients seen within four hours - down from 59.6 per cent the previous week.
It was followed by NHS Lanarkshire, which saw 68.2 per cent of the 4,281 patients in the target time (up from 65.5 per cent in the week ending August 22) and then NHS Borders with 69.8 per cent (down from 67.7 per cent).
The island health boards: NHS Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, were the only ones to exceed the 95 per cent target with 100 per cent, 97.8 per cent and 95.7 per cent performances respectively.
The latest monthly figures for July, published by Public Health Scotland, also show record levels of patients waiting beyond four hours.
A total of 81.5 per cent of the attendance at A&E across Scotland were seen within the target time, with 3,579 (2.8 per cent) experiencing a wait in excess of eight hours and 781 waiting beyond 12 hours.
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's health spokesperson said: "Today’s statistics paint a clear picture of a health service in crisis, with the health of thousands of Scots on the line.
"This was avoidable. For months now the SNP has completely failed to re-mobilise the NHS, increase capacity and support staff. And their slapdash recovery plan has been met with serious scepticism from the BMA and the Royal College of Nurses.
"A&E services are struggling to cope and delayed discharge is getting worse.
"If this crisis in our NHS is allowed to persist, then we risk further avoidable deaths.
"This cannot continue. It’s high time that the SNP woke up to the unfolding crisis in our NHS and listened to those who know best – the doctors, nurses and workers on the frontline."
While Scottish Lib Dems leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has been granted an Urgent Question at Holyrood to ask the government about the failed targets.
He said: "The situation in emergency departments is desperate. Hospitals are under insurmountable and unprecedented pressure. People are suffering as a result.
"Scotland’s A&E departments are bordering on meltdown. For four consecutive weeks there have been record breaking waits. Health boards have issued galling warnings, asking people not to attend unless their lives are in danger. That wouldn’t happen unless the situation was truly dire.
"In the face of this crisis, the Health Secretary has offered no immediate support, resource or intervention. Both the parliament and the public need to be reassured that the Scottish Government recognise the scale of this crisis, and that they will act accordingly.
"If nothing is done, things will only get worse."
Responding to the figures, Health Secretary Huma Yousaf insisted the Government was "monitoring the situation closely" and said: "Weekly performance is impacted due to a range of challenges including high attendances, staffing pressures due to isolation and annual leave and the continued requirement for infection control precautions that is affecting the time people need to spend in A&E.
"This is combined with increased levels of people attending A&E who are much sicker and require higher levels of care.
He added: "To minimise pressures, in June we committed £12 million in additional funding to health boards across Scotland to support non-Covid emergency care.
"The boards are in the process of recruiting additional staff with this funding and we expect to see an impact of our rapid action in the coming weeks.
"We have also provided £80 million to boards in this financial year to support their elective activity and specifically target the backlog of care including appointments, diagnostic testing and surgery, as part of the broader mobilisation of our NHS.
"Boosting staffing levels will help put measures in place to reduce waiting times for urgent or emergency treatment and increase available beds."
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