JACKIE Baillie MSP has hit out at the length of time patients wait to be seen at Accident and Emergency at Dumbarton and the Vale’s closest Accident and Emergency department.

The latest figures for the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) A&E in Paisley show 111 patients waited more than four hours hours in A&E in the week ending November 7, with six people waiting more than eight hours. In one case, a patient was forced to wait more than 12 hours.

This is a marked drop from February when 325 patients waited more than four hours and 18 waited 12 hours to be seen and the Scottish Government sent in a support team in a bid to get the waiting times under control.

The government first began publishing A&E waiting times weekly in February and pledged that 98 per cent of patients would be seen with four hours – a target not yet met.

The latest figures show that only 90.6 per cent of casualty patients are seen within four hours at RAH.

Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie said patients are still waiting too long and called for an A&E to north of the river to help ‘over-stretched and under-resourced’ staff.

She said: “The SNP government needs to get a grip of this before winter hits. 

"Their decision to squeeze spending on health in Scotland harder than even the Tories in England is letting down patients and staff in Dumbarton, Vale of Leven and Helensburgh.

“The SNP Health Secretary should seriously reconsider her decision to rule out plans for a north of the river A&E department. 

"A new A&E unit, either at the Golden Jubilee or the Vale of Leven Hospital, would free up capacity elsewhere in the system and help reduce waiting times for local patients.”

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “A&E performance at the RAH has improved by over fifteen percentage points since weekly reporting began. This sustained improvement in performance is delivering shorter waiting times and a substantial increase in patients being seen in four hours. 

"However, there is clearly more work to be done as we head into winter and I have made clear that any long patient waits are unacceptable.”

She said an additional £10.7million had been invested in the NHS to help ease pressure and that the SNP Government’s 2009 Vision for the Vale ‘ensured local services are safeguarded and improved’.