ALMOST 150,000 Scots waited too long at A&E last year, according to figures published today.

Data showed that 143,038 people waited more than four hours at accident & emergency units in 2018.

Of these, 14,509 waited over eight hours, with 2,908 waiting over 12 hours.

The number waiting more than four hours is up by more than a third on 2017, when the target was missed 105,748 times.

The disclosure is just the latest target set by the SNP government to be missed, as health boards struggle with staffing and resources.

In September it emerged that the four-week waiting time target for key services such as physiotherapy and podiatry had been missed more than 300,000 times since it was introduced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in 2016.

Scottish Labour said the figures were “staggering.” The party’s health spokeswoman Monica Lennon stormed: “Increasing numbers of people waiting too long at A&E reveals unacceptable pressure in other parts of our health service such as in social care and primary care.

“Ministers set the health service targets for staff to hit and then do not deliver the support and resources needed. It simply isn’t good enough.”

In October Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said Ms Sturgeon had presided over an “abject failure” to properly fund healthcare north of the border after an auditors’ report found that NHS Scotland was not financially sustainable. The SNP leader has repeatedly insisted that health spending is being increased.