Jackie Baillie has warned that the Health Secretary Humza Yousaf is ‘asleep at the wheel’ as figures show planned operations stalling, A&E in disarray and delayed discharge at unacceptably high levels.

Delayed discharge has remained shockingly high with 1,780 people stuck in hospital at the census point in April 2022 with 1,787 beds occupied on average.

There are currently 53,604 days spent in hospital by people whose discharge was delayed – an increase of 64 per cent compared with the number of delayed days in April 2021 (32,600).

Meanwhile, the number of planned operations remains worryingly low, with a 16.4 per cent decrease in the number of planned operations this April compared to last month and activity a shocking 33.5 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels – raising serious questions about the effectiveness of the SNP’s NHS recovery plan.

Despite this drop in the number of planned operations, the proportion being cancelled at the last minute increased – with “capacity or non-clinical reasons” being responsible for a third of cancellations.

A&E remains in disarray with almost 10,000 Scots waiting over eight hours to be seen at emergency departments in April 2022, despite the best efforts of staff.

Emergency departments at flagship hospitals in Scotland’s two biggest cities continued to struggle in the week ending 29 May 2022, with only 49.1 per cent of people at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital being seen within 4 hours, and just 47.8 per cent at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Only today we learned that there are over 7,800 workforce vacancies across our NHS, including over 6,200 nursing and midwifery roles waiting to be filled.

Scottish Labour’s Deputy Leader and Health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “The crisis in our NHS is persisting and it is clear that the Health Secretary remains asleep at the wheel.

“We are at a critical moment for our NHS, but the SNP is failing to get the basics right and to provide the resources needed to get our NHS back on track.

“Delayed discharge is spiralling upwards and upwards, with the number of bed days lost soaring.

“At the same time the number of operations remain way below pre-pandemic levels and are continuing to fall.

“Our heroic staff are facing burnout and exhaustion with vacancies at unacceptable and worrying levels.

“The Health Secretary must face up to the fact that his plan isn’t working.

“As ever, Humza Yousaf is more interested in cover-up than NHS catch-up.”