PATIENTS have been left waiting in accident and emergency for more than 12 hours, a shock report has revealed.

The latest figures from NHS Ayrshire and Arran showed 74 people had been waiting longer than eight hours in the A&E departments at Ayr and Crosshouse.

And seven people were even forced to endure a 12 hour wait - three times the level most patients should expect.

Crucially, a total of 788 people locally were seen outwith that limit of four hours, which is the aim for hospitals across the country.

Health boards are supposed to hit a target of 95% seen within this period.

In Ayrshire, that figure is 92.5%, leaving hundreds more patients waiting longer.

NHS AYRSHIRE and Arran over ten thousand people come through the doors of the A&E departments in September.

However the health board are still not hitting the 95 per cent targets set out by the Scottish Government for patients waiting four hours or less to be processed.

For September 2015, 10,502 people came to A&E departments all across Ayrshire, 92.5 per cent of them were seen four hours - that’s roughly 9,714 people.

This means that around 788 people were left over four hours to be dealt with by staff.

74 people were in the A&E department for over eight hours, and shockingly seven people went over 12 hours.

An NHS Ayrshire & Arran spokesman said: “Over the past few months NHS Ayrshire & Arran has experienced a high demand for emergency services.

"We very much regret that a higher than normal number of patients have recently been delayed more than four hours in our Emergency departments of both University Hospitals Ayr and Crosshouse.

“We continue to work on improving our performance towards meeting the target of 95 per cent of patients being treated, discharged or admitted within four hours".

The NHS team have implemented a number of measures to try to help with the increased pressure.

This includes a new assessment unit at Crosshouse Hospital Crosshouse to support quicker review and treatment of patients who are referred to hospital by their family doctor.

They already opened a similar unit at University Hospital Ayr last January.

The spokesman added:“University Hospital Ayr continues to develop services for patients in line with its Building for Better Care Programme.

"This includes a new Emergency Department due to open by March 2016 and a new Combined Assessment Unit in 2017.

“The new Health and Social Care Partnerships in East, North and South Ayrshire are working towards reducing delays for patients waiting to be discharged from hospital.

“We sincerely apologise to patients who have experienced longer than normal waits in our emergency departments.”