"There were particular pressures evident in the accident and emergency departments"

Andrew Carver, of the SAHC

Government initiatives include an �11m fund aiming to cut waiting times in accident and emergency wards and a �20m strategy to tackle so-called bed-blocking.

Once the data is collated, the results will be unveiled on Tuesday to give an indication of waiting times for emergency patients across the country.

Andrew Carver, research manager of the Scottish Association of Health Councils, said similar projects had been undertaken in the past two years.

"In each of the last two years there were particular pressures evident in the accident and emergency departments in the major centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow," Mr Carver said.

The survey followed two UK-wide exercises in January of 1999 and 2000, which found that patients at some English hospitals had waited 24 hours in casualty.