Murdo says A&E waiting times in Fife are “absolutely appalling.”
His remarks come after the latest monthly waiting times were published for December 2024. They showed only 63.3% of patients across Scotland were seen within the SNP’s four-hour target time.
The SNP’s target is for 95% of patients to be seen within four hours of arriving at A&E, but in Fife only 67.8% of patients were seen in that timescale, while the percentage at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy was only 58.8.
Murdo says that “lives will have undoubtedly been put at risk” by the excessive waits facing suffering patients and added that the SNP are presiding over a permanent crisis in A&E services in Fife. He says that, while overwhelmed staff are doing their best, they simply do not have the resources from the SNP Government to be able to meet patient demand.
He added it is time for “discredited” SNP Health Secretary Neil Gray – for as long as he remains in post – to show some leadership and back common-sense Scottish Conservative plans to cut pointless health service bureaucracy and get money to the frontline instead.
Commenting, Murdo said: “These latest A&E waiting time figures in Fife are absolutely appalling.
“Lives will undoubtedly have been put at risk and, in some tragic cases, lost due to these excessive waits facing patients. Successive SNP health secretaries have failed to get a grip of this situation and are now presiding over a permanent crisis in A&E services in Fife.
“Overwhelmed staff in Fife are doing their very best, but simply do not have the resources from the SNP government to treat patients quickly enough.”
Murdo continued: “SNP Health Secretary Neil Gray might be discredited and distracted by personal scandal but, for as long as John Swinney refuses to sack him, he has a job to do. He must show some leadership and back the common-sense proposals put forward by the Scottish Conservatives which would cut pointless bureaucracy and get money to frontline services in Fife instead.”
