SNP “incompetence and failure” has put the founding principles of the NHS under threat, Scottish Labour claimed today.

The party’s health spokeswoman Dame Jackie Baillie said the service was at breaking point and it was clear patients around the country were “suffering the very real consequences” after a series of incidents in recent weeks.

Last month, 19-year-old footballer Brooke Paterson languished for five hours on a North Lanarkshire pitch with a broken leg waiting for an ambulance, while in nearby University Hospital Wishaw, Peter Black, a 71-year-old grandfather with stage-four cancer, endured a 15-hour wait in A&E.

Pointing to other reports last month of a Stranraer woman forced to make 90-mile trips to receive basic maternity care, Dame Jackie warned: “Behind every grim dataset and every shameful new record are thousands of people suffering the very real consequences of SNP failure.”

Arguing “the SNP has done nothing” with the £5.2 billion funding boost from the Westminster Labour government, she added: “The SNP is desperately out of touch — we can’t risk a third decade of this tired and incompetent government.”

SNP MSP Clare Haughey MSP hit back: “Jackie Baillie has a bare-faced cheek to talk about the founding principles of the NHS when these principles are under threat from her Labour Party which is opening the door to private healthcare companies driven by profit rather than patient care.

“While other parties continually talk down our NHS, the SNP is getting on with the job by making it easier for people to get the treatment they need when they need it.”