Health Secretary Angela Constance defended the National Health Service (NHS) amid record-breaking waiting times in emergency departments, asserting that improvements are underway despite recent data highlighting significant challenges.

Figures from Public Health Scotland indicated that only 67.9 percent of patients attending major emergency departments in June were admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours—the lowest performance for that month on record. This marks a continued struggle for NHS services grappling with increased demand and capacity constraints.

Addressing the situation during an interview with NHS24 in Glasgow, Constance emphasized that the NHS is making progress. She pointed to the achievement of conducting approximately 150,000 operations and procedures as evidence that the system is beginning to turn a corner. “We are also seeing those long waits reducing,” she added, suggesting that the worst of the delays may have passed.

However, critics remain unconvinced by the government’s optimistic outlook. Scottish Labour has accused the Scottish National Party (SNP) government of downplaying the severity of the crisis facing the NHS. Party representatives described the administration as being in “denial over the scale of the crisis,” highlighting ongoing concerns about patient access and service quality.

The record low in emergency department performance comes amid a wider backdrop of operational pressures across Scotland’s health services, reflecting national and broader trends in healthcare systems grappling with post-pandemic demand surges.

The Health Secretary’s remarks underscore the government’s commitment to addressing waiting times and improving patient outcomes, though opposition voices call for more urgent and transparent action to resolve persistent issues affecting Scotland’s NHS.