ALMOST 20,000 patients have had waiting times which breached the four-hour A&E target at Glasgow's flagship super-hospital since it opened its doors in May 2015, figures have shown.

The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital has only achieved the Scottish Government target to see, treat and then either discharge or admit 95 per cent of patients within four hours on two weeks out of 92 since it opened.

The worst performance occurred in the week ending January 8 2017 when more than a quarter of patients to the emergency department waited longer than four hours.

On average, the department's compliance is running at 87.7 per cent with 19,577 out of the 159,123 patients who have attended A&E since it opened waiting longer than four hours.

In general, performance has deteriorated over time.

Alex Cole-Hamilton, health spokesman for the Scottish LibDems, who compiled the figures, said: “If you’re a potential patient in Glasgow this new analysis reveals a real horror story. Some 20,000 patients have now waited long periods in A&E since the flagship QEUH opened.

“It confirms that, for almost two years, SNP ministers and health bosses have been utterly unable to get a grip of the situation there.

“We were told they would be ‘consistently delivering’ against the A&E target by last spring. In fact, they are consistently underperforming. Their interventions to date evidently haven’t worked and the situation is getting worse."

Compliance with the four-hour target is seen as a bellwether for how wider services are functioning, particularly around access to a GP or the availability of care home places or social care to reduce hospital bed blocking by the elderly which leads to backlogs of patients in A&E.

A spokeswoman for NHS GGC said: "Performance figures for emergency departments, by their nature, will always fluctuate on a day to day, and even week to week, basis.

"However, the majority of patients were seen, assessed, treated and either admitted or discharge within the four hour target. Most of those patients who did not meet the four hour target were either admitted or discharged shortly thereafter.

"We apologise to those patients who waited longer than this. However, medical attention will always be clinically prioritised for those who most urgently require it."

She added that 98 per cent of patients were been treated and discharged within the target time in the health board's minor injury units, and consultants are now reviewing patients as soon as they arrive at A&E to identify those who could be treated elsewhere.

The Scottish Government gave NHS GGC an extra £305,000 in January to help patients who no longer need acute care to be supported at home and free up a hospital bed. A further £3.16 million has also been allocated unscheduled care.