A leading emergency medicine specialist has revealed some patients are spending two days in A&E.
John Thomson, vice-president (Scotland) of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said people are waiting up to 48 hours before being transferred to a ward.
And he estimated the country was 1000 beds short.
He said: “In the last week there were over 600 patients spending more than 12 hours in emergency departments across Scotland and, indeed, some patients have spent up to 48 hours waiting for an in-patient bed.
“We are not into winter yet but this is beyond the performance of our worst ever winter.
“There is no doubt that the next four to six months will be the most challenging the NHS in Scotland has ever faced.”
His warning comes after Public Health Scotland published A&E waiting times which were the worst on record.
The figures showed just 71.3 per cent of all patients in Scotland were seen within the target of four hours.
They also revealed that in a single week 1871 patients had waited more than eight hours and 612 more than 12 hours.
Thomson, a consultant in emergency medicine, said: “That equates to an exceptionally poor patient experience and also a very poor staff experience as it is utterly demoralising for staff as well.
“Patients are not only spending longer than they should in emergency departments, they are spending many, many hours longer than they should.
“The performance figures are absolutely devastating as a reflection of the quality of care patients are receiving across the system but we know the figures don’t tell the whole story.”
Thomson said that a few years ago patients having to spend longer than 12 hours in A&E was a “never event”.
However, he said there are not enough beds.
Thomson added: “That is a problem which existed pre-Covid but it is a problem that has been exacerbated by Covid because of the infection prevention and control measures that have had to be put in place to ensure patients have adequate space between their beds.
“We are 1000 acute beds short nationally”.
He said that before Covid there was no problem with ambulances stacking up outside hospitals as “patients would be brought into corridors and would wait many hours on trollies”.
He called that “incredibly undignified”, adding: “One of the benefts of what’s come from the Covid pandemic is corridor care is no longer deemed acceptable … because of the infection risk.
It is a relatively new phenomenon of ambulances being unable to offload, putting the spotlight on delays which used to be held within the emergency department.
“But the issues around capacity are long standing.”
All A&E patients are triaged on the basis of clinical need. Thomson said: “Emergency departments can be incredibly busy but if we are able to admit the patients at the right point in their journey without any delay, they can still work very efficiently.
"Busy is normal. What we can’t control is when there is no capacity in the hospital.
“More beds is the priority long term but obviously there would be staff requirements to come along with that and it is important not only that we recruit staff but we retain them as well.”
Scottish Lib-Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “These statistics confirm there is a problem throughout the whole health service caused by a lack of social care in our communities which prevents people leaving hospital and thereby freeing up beds for A&E patients.”
Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “Staff work incredibly hard and they deserve the resources required to do the job and proper support, and if that doesn’t happen quickly, unfortunately more people will die unnecessarily.”
Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said it was “scandalous” that any patient has to wait two days in A&E.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We recognise far too many people are waiting too long in A&E – but we monitor daily the number of delays of 12 hours or above reported by health boards and no delay of two days has been reported to us.
“To minimise winter pressures … we’ve announced £300million of measures to help increase NHS and social care capacity … and reduce delayed discharges, which will ensure additional capacity for emergency admissions.
“As part of the NHS Recovery Plan we have committed £27million towards the redesign of urgent care to ensure people receive the right care at the right place.”
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