New figures have revealed that people seeking emergency treatment at the north’s two biggest hospitals waited far longer than they should have done at the end of last month.
Statistics released yesterday showed that staff at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Raigmore Hospital failed to meet a target of treating 95% of patients within four hours during the week ending May 31.
The results for ARI and Raigmore were 92.8% and 92.6% respectively.
The figures showed 1,081 people attended accident and emergency at ARI and 78 people waited more than four hours and four people waited over eight hours.
Of the 665 people who attended Raigmore Hospital for treatment that week, 49 waited for more than four hours and two waited for over eight hours.
The figures showed that 95.1% of patients attending all NHS Grampian A&E departments were seen within four hours and 94.5% at NHS Highland facilities.
But Labour MSP Richard Baker said the ARI figures showed that the north-east health board was “going backwards” on waiting times.
“This can come as no surprise when Scottish Government underfunding has resulted in a recruitment crisis at NHS Grampian,” he added.
North-east Liberal Democrat MSP Alison McInnes said: “I know that staff at NHS Grampian are working round the clock to improve services.
“But these figures underline the fact that NHS staff and patients alike are being let down by an SNP government who have systematically failed to get to grips with the challenges facing our health service.”
The government has said NHS Grampian’s share of national funding had increased from 9.1% to 9.7% since 2007 and an additional £51.8million has been committed to the board for 2015-16.
A spokeswoman for NHS Grampian said the ARI result represented more than nine in 10 people being seen and admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
“We would continue to remind the general public that a trip to the emergency department may not be the best course of action,” she added.
A spokeswoman for NHS Highland said Raigmore Hospital went through a very busy period that week but there was no staff shortage.
“We expect a degree of variability in the weekly performance figures due to peaks in demand for hospital services,” she added.