HEALTH hotline NHS 24 faced fresh criticism today after it emerged some priority callers waited more than four hours to get emergency advice.

Bosses said most inquiries to the out-of-hours hotline over Christmas and New Year were answered by call handlers within five minutes.

But figures released today by NHS 24 showed the average time taken for nurses to issue medical advice for 'priority 1' callers - which would include symptoms such as chest pains - was 25 minutes.

Despite the average wait, NHS 24 bosses admitted one 'priority 1' caller waited 41/2 hours for a follow-up call with emergency advice, while others deemed less serious were waiting up to six hours.

Patient organisations also said they had reports of some people waiting three hours.

The Evening Times reported this week how nurses who handle the queries at NHS 24 centres took almost 90,000 calls from December 25 to January 4, twice the number they would handle over any normal 10-day spell.

Bosses said the average time to answer calls was 90 seconds, and the maximum around 10 minutes. But the overall average taken to answer all calls with advice was 56 minutes.

SNP health spokeswoman Shona Robison said the delays were "dangerously high" and called for a review.

She said: "I am very concerned people who may need very urgent advice are having to wait more than four hours to speak to a nurse.

"There is clearly something wrong with the system. It makes sense for priority 1 cases to be referred to accident and emergency.

"You would have thought they would be erring on the side of caution."

Danny Crawford, chief officer of the Glasgow Health Council, which looks after patients' interests, said: "Clearly, the system is having difficulty coping during busy periods. Waits of that time for priority patients are extremely worrying."

A spokeswoman for NHS 24 said: "All urgent calls were dealt with immediately.

"Less urgent calls are put in a callback queue at busy times and are prioritised, based upon clinical need, by an experienced clinician.

"Callers are advised to get back in touch with NHS 24 immediately if their condition changes.

"All patients promised a callback were called back."

Callers over the festive period were criticised for inundating the emergency line with queries about acne and dandruff. Bosses said those kind of calls put lives at risk by delaying emergency advice.