NUMBERS of patients waiting more than 12 hours in Scottish A&Es are 99 times higher than 14 years ago and it is putting lives at risk, medics have warned.

New analysis of by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) show that just 784 people faced a 12-hour wait in Scottish A&Es in 2011 compared with a staggering 76,346 in 2024.

The figures mean that over three times as many people languished for more than 12 hours in A&E last year alone than in the entire preceding decade.

RCEM vice president for Scotland Dr John-Paul Loughrey said: “It is unacceptable, and it is dangerous — and many of those patients will be stuck on trolleys receiving so called ‘corridor care’ — because we just don’t have enough in-patient beds.

“And for those who keep saying Scotland’s performance is the best in the UK — that may well be true — but is being the ‘least worst’ is not something to be lauding?

“We cannot go on like this. Lives are being put at risk by these long waits and ending them must be a political priority.”

Branding the analysis “damning,” Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Dame Jackie Baillie commented: “The SNP’s dangerous incompetence is putting lives at risk and letting down hard-working NHS staff.

“Thousands of Scots are being left in agony in waiting rooms and corridors for hours on end as their condition declines.

“Despite plenty of warm words and empty promises, successive SNP health secretaries and first ministers have failed to get to grips with this crisis.”

SNP health secretary Neil Gray responded: “The Scottish government is determined to drive improvements, reduce waiting lists and tackle delayed discharge, all of which will improve the flow of patients through hospital and ease pressures on A&E.”