Murdo has said Health Secretary Neil Gray has “taken his eye off the ball” and is “distracted” by other events as he viewed the latest “poor” A&E waiting time figures for Fife.
He was commenting on the weekly and monthly A&E data, published by Public Health Scotland earlier this week, which revealed that patients in the Kingdom experienced worsening waiting times over both periods.
In NHS Fife, the weekly statistics show that the number of A&E patients in Fife who were seen within the target of four hours fell from 776 to 732 from the week ending January 19 to January 26. And the number of patients who had to wait more than four hours to be seen increased from 413 to 464 in this period, along with those who had to wait more than eight hours – increasing from 126 to 138.
Meanwhile, the monthly data for A&E patients in Fife waiting to be seen found that those who were seen within the target of four hours fell from 5,753 for the month ending October 31, 2024, to 4,820 in the month ending December 31, 2024. And those who had to wait more than 12 hours increased from 90 to 395 in this period.
Commenting, Murdo said: “These latest A&E waiting time figures for patients in Fife are poor and utterly shocking and must be highlighted. Clearly, Health Secretary Neil Gray has taken his eye off the ball, to coin a football phrase – he is too distracted by clinging on to his job and attempting to bat off criticism of his ministerial use of limos to attend football games.
“Mr Gray narrowly survived a vote on an amendment tabled by the Scottish Conservatives at the Scottish Parliament last week. However, he needs to focus his attention on facing the reality of these poor A&E waiting time figures for Fife.
“As we can see from the Public Health Scotland statistics, both the weekly and monthly A&E data for Fife is very concerning. It is quite unbelievable to see the monthly figures for Fife actually worsen for those waiting more than four hours, those waiting more than eight hours and patients who had to wait more than 12 hours. This situation is unsustainable going forward, and I would urge the Health Secretary to guarantee that A&E patients in Fife, and beyond, will be seen as quickly as possible.”
