Worst September A&E waits on record

Following a series of new statistics revealing the worst A&E wait times for September on record, sky-high delayed discharges and thousands of cancelled operations, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said that the SNP are bad for your health.

New figures from Public Health Scotland show that:

• September 2025 was the worst September on record for A&E waits on all metrics: just 67.8% of people were seen within 4 hours, 15,821 people waited over 8 hours and 6,609 people waited over 12 hours.
• This compares to September 2009, when no one waited more than 12 hours at A&E.
• Nearly 2,000 people (1,953) were stuck in hospital at the September census due to their discharge being delayed.
• In the last 12 months, operations activity remains 12% lower than the 12-month period from October 2018 to September 2019.

On A&E, Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"After a record-breaking August for long waits at A&E, this SNP government have broken another record in September as well. What's worse is that the very longest waits are ballooning too, with thousands waiting over half a day at A&E.

"Winter typically brings the worst pressures at A&E, yet we are already seeing records broken for long waits. The warning signs could not be clearer.

"We need to see the Scottish Government start taking serious action to support the staff facing these pressure cooker conditions. Scotland's A&E patients deserve better - and with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, you can vote for change with fairness at its heart."

On delayed discharges, he said:

“The SNP’s promise to end delayed discharges is yet another in the long line of their broken healthcare promises. Their failure to provide proper care at home and in the community is now routinely leaving 2,000 people stuck in hospital beds on a typical night, creating bed shortages for new patients and longer waits in A&E.

“The SNP are bad for your health.

“Only the Scottish Liberal Democrats have a realistic plan to fix this crisis, because Scotland deserves better than this. We would create a new UK-wide minimum wage for care workers, £2 higher than the national minimum wage, to tackle the chronic staff shortages in care and make social care a profession of choice again.”

On cancelled operations, he said:

“Every month these figures reveal the SNP are nowhere in terms of getting our NHS back on track. They are continuously letting staff down and leaving patients in pain.

“Despite a revolving door of SNP health secretaries, not a single one has ever delivered for our health service.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats have got a realistic plan to get everyone the care they need when they need it. What our NHS needs is a change of government.”