A GLASGOW hospital is the worst in the country for accident and emergency waiting times according to official figures.

 

The Western infirmary has the most patients waiting for more than four hours with almost one third not meeting the four hour target.

Earlier this month the Scottish Government announced it was sending an intervention team into the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley after it was revealed it had 23% of patients were not seen within four hours.

Labour leader Jim Murphy is visiting an A&E department in Glasgow today and said the figures show action is needed on hospitals in the city as well.

The waiting time stats for the month of December last year show the Western met the target for 69% of patients, meaning 548 were waiting for more than four hours. It also shows 242 had a wait of more than eight hours and 13 more than 12 hours.

For the Royal Infirmary the figure not meeting the four hour wait target was 15% and for the Victoria and Southern General it was 14% each.

Mr Murphy is holding his shadow cabinet meeting in Glasgow today before meeting staff at the Royal's casualty department.

He said: "This is an A&E crisis that's been growing for months. The hospitals send weekly figures to Scottish Government, so ministers have known about this since the autumn but it has taken until February to admit it.

"They are sending in their hit squad to the RAH. But the western is the worst in the country. The attitude seems to be the Western is getting shut, so it doesn't matter, but it does if you're stuck in an A&E waiting room for hours.

"There seems to be a 'who cares' attitude to the Western and the Vicky between now and when they shut."

Labour want the Scottish Government to publish weekly figures like happens in England.

Labour is seeking to make health and the NHS the key elections issue with more policy announcements due today.

Mr Murphy said his plan for 1000 extra nurses would help improve the service and he said the party plans to spend the entire £170m form a mansion tax on health

He said: "The 1000 extra nurses costs £2m the mansion tax raises £170m for Scotland. We will announce how we will spend the rest of the money. We are going to spend every single penny on Scotland's NHS.

"It's redistributing money from some of the richest people in the country to protect something that is precious to us which is the NHS. Most of these houses are in London and the south east and one third are in one constituency, Kensington and Chelsea."

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "Our staff are working tirelessly to ensure all patients are seen and either admitted or discharged as soon as possible.

"However we would like to apologise to any patient who has had a lengthy wait.

"We have put in place a range of measures to try and improve the situation including the opening of additional beds, additional pharmacy staff and increased diagnostics availability ( x-ray ultrasound etc."