Patient's wait outside hospital for treatment

Mr O'Kane has laid the responsibilty for A&E pressure firmly at the door of the Scottish Government, stating several NHS recovery plans have failed to make a real impact on the ground.

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Mr O'Kane added: “The reality is the SNP have introduced countless NHS recovery plans but the pressures on our A&E departments, and in our hospitals more widely, are not going away.

“[They] should explain to hardworking staff and to vulnerable patients why an ambulance has sat outside the hospital for that amount of time and explain why, after 18 years of the party having power, our NHS is not improving”.

The Scottish Government had failed to respond at the time of going to press.