GLASGOW’S flagship hospital has recorded its fourth worst A&E waiting time performance since it opened in 2015.

The latest figures for last week show under 70% were seen within the four hour target.

Of the 1877 patients seen at the hospital’s A&E department 69.2% were seen within the four hours and 578 had to wait longer.

For the corresponding week the previous year, there were fewer people through the doors of A&E but more people were seen within the target time as 438 had to wait longer than four hours.

For the same week last year 78.5%of patients were seen within the timescale.

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The hospital has regularly been among the lowest in Scotland for meeting the four hour targets.

The three other periods where the figures were worse were all during the peak pressure weeks last winter in December and January.

The health board said that reducing waits was a priority and said people using alternative services where appropriate would help A&E staff deal more effectively with emergencies.

Monica Lennon, Labour health spokeswoman said: “These figures are going in the wrong direction. We are approaching the peak period over the winter but not there yet so it is a concern.

I know health boards are begging people not to come to A&E if it’s not an emergency but people can’t get a GP appointment and out of hours appointments are difficult to get.”

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She said that while people do need to use the NHS responsibly there are issues with staffing and resources at Scotland’s biggest hospital and across the NHS.

Ms Lennon added: “There are issues with recruitment across the UK and issues with staff stress and illness among the workforce.”

She also highlighted the financial pressures on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde struggling to balance its budget.

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “Our staff work very hard to ensure patients attending our Emergency Departments (EDs) are seen, diagnosed, treated and either admitted or discharged as quickly as possible.

“Reducing the length of time our patients wait to been seen in our EDs is one of our key priorities. However, on occasion we experience high levels of attendances.

“We are working closely with our Health and Social Care Partnerships to redesign services to ensure patients can access the most appropriate care for their needs in the most appropriate setting.

“Directing people to the most appropriate service, such as Minor Injury Units, calling NHS24, GPs and pharmacists, for their needs enables our ED staff to prioritise patients with the most urgent clinical need.”