The Borders General Hospital has the third worst A&E waiting times in Scotland as emergency care remains in 'severe crisis', new figures have revealed.
Data, released from Public Health Scotland - of the week leading up to April 10 - show that only 60.7 per cent of those waiting to be treated within A&E services at the hospital were seen and discharged within four hours.
This figure has increased by 6 per cent for the week ending in April 3, however, the figure is lower than this time last month.
Scotland's overall performance for treatment and discharging patients within the same time period was shown to be at an all-time low at 66.2 per cent.
Across the country, there were 22,774 attendances at Emergency Departments, of which 7,705 patients waited more than four-hours.
Dr John Thomson, vice president of The Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, said: "We are continuing to see severely poor performance in the Emergency Care system. Staff are becoming more and more burnt out; the appalling crisis in Emergency Care is seriously distressing. The public are extremely worried about these long waiting times, and rightly so, because patients are coming to harm. Staff continue doing all they can to deliver care and keep patients safe, but it is incredibly challenging.
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"It is a desperate situation, a result of widespread shortages of staff and beds throughout the system and a crisis in social care. Despite exiting winter and entering spring, the situation remains dire; we have never faced a crisis worse than this.
"The intense workload is breaking staff, and the distressing circumstances are breaking their morale.
"Patients continue to face seriously long waits, and we continue to state that this crisis is worse than ever, and that patients are coming to harm.
"The government cannot let this deteriorate further, staff and patients urgently need meaningful action now to tackle the desperate situation in Emergency Care and address the widespread staff shortages, the bed shortages, and the social care crisis," he said.
READ MORE: The Borders General Hospital is at maximum capacity
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