The number of patients left “languishing” in hospital accident and emergency units in Fife almost trebled in four years, it has been revealed.
Labour leader Johann Lamont accused First Minister Alex Salmond of not caring about the issue as she revealed the figures during a clash at Holyrood.
The Scottish Government standard pledges 98% of patients will wait less than four hours from arrival to admission, discharge or transfer for accident and emergency treatment.
Data uncovered by Labour shows breaches of that target in Fife have risen from 2,891 in 2008-2009 to 7,901 in 2011-2012, an increase of 173%.
The number of breaches in Tayside rose from 835 in 2008-2009 to 1,098 in 2011-2012 but, with the increased number of people being attending A&E is taken into account, it was the only mainland health board to hit the target according to recently published figures.
Ms Lamont said: “If the First Minister ever made it out of Bute House to the real word and met a patient waiting for treatment on a trolley, we can assume the First Minister would reflect as the person was lying in front of him and say: ‘Listen, you are more satisfied with the NHS than ever before’.
“Isn’t it the case the reason things have got worse, the reason he has done nothing to improve the situation, the reason he doesn’t even know is because he doesn’t care about the NHS patient? He only cares about SNP slogans.”
Mr Salmond replied by citing a plan for “reinforcing the staff and resources at accident and emergency units across Scotland” announced by Health Secretary Alex Neil so the “position can be improved”.
He also highlighted £50 million of funding to try to shorten emergency treatment times and improve patient care.
“Johann Lamont, in pursuing these individual cases, should not deflect from the case that overall treatment in terms of the times waiting for treatment, in terms of the efficacy of treatment, in terms of the number of people being treated is improving in the National Health Service,” he added.
NHS Fife director of acute services George Cunningham said the board has already recruited an additional four A&E consultants, which brought the total to 12, and expanded the availability of senior medical cover into evenings and weekends.
He added: “Our latest validated figures for March 2013 show 96.9% of our patients are being seen within the four-hour target.”
Tayside’s A&E clinical lead, Shobhan Thakore, said hitting its target was down to the hard work of both A&E and admissions staff.
He added: “It is important that the public realise they can access a GP for urgent issues outside of office hours via NHS 24,” he added.