LONG waits in Scotland A&Es could be responsible for more than 800 deaths, according to analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM).

The study comes as latest Public Health Scotland figures reveal that less than two-thirds (66.1 per cent) of patients were seen and either admitted, transferred or discharged within the four-hour target time in the week ending September 14, with 11.7 per cent — 3,271 people — waiting over eight hours and 4.9 per cent languishing for more than 12.

RCEM analysis suggests that it is those 12-hour waits which drive “excess mortality” at a rate of one in 72. Applied to the 76,510 people last year who endured such waits, they estimate 818 people lost their lives as a result.

Urging politicians to back their manifesto to tackle wait times with boosts to A&E staffing levels and social care investment, RCEM Scotland vice president Dr Fiona Hunter said: “Behind this statistic are stories of heartbreak.

“It doesn’t have to be this way — the crisis is fixable and it comes down to patient flow in hospitals — getting people out of ED and into a ward bed and getting them out of hospital when they are well enough to go home.”

Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie said: “For years Scots have been dying as a result of dangerously long waits in A&E, but the SNP has stood idly by while this crisis ran riot.”

SNP health secretary Neil Gray responded: “We’ve always recognised the relationship between long A&E waits and increased risk of harm, which is why we remain committed to delivering improved performance and shifting the focus of care from acute to community where better for patients.”