There was a rise in the time taken to complete treatment

Malcolm Chisholm said work was already being done with clinicians and managers but that it needed to be translated into support for staff on the ground.

A survey said that the walking wounded were waiting longer to see an A&E doctor than in recent years.

Half of trolley patients were waiting more than 30 minutes, it found.

The Scottish National Party accused the minister of adopting a "laissez-faire" approach to the issue.

'Not good enough'

"Listening to Malcolm Chisholm today you would not think he has understood the urgency required," said health spokeswoman Shona Robison.

"He talks of taking the next three years to work out what to do.

"That's not good enough. In A&E it's not years that matter but minutes."

We are already working with clinicians and managers to address fundamental problems at national, regional and local level Malcolm Chisholm Health Minister

Mr Chisholm said preparations were almost complete for a systematic programme which would eliminate the "completely unacceptable" waits.

He announced �5m in funding for the Centre for Change and Innovation (CCI), which will work with front line staff over the next three years to tackle the causes and find solutions.

"We are already working with clinicians and managers to address fundamental problems at national, regional and local level and CCI will shortly appoint a programme manager to lead this work," he said.

"I want now to see that translated into action on the ground so that staff get the support they need."

Mr Chisholm said the Scottish Executive had invested �12m in modern A&E departments and increased the numbers of consultants by 30% since 1999.

"But results of this latest snapshot survey show more needs to be done to support NHS staff and that will now be delivered," he said.

Condition assessed

About 11,000 patients attended A&E departments during the three days covered by the survey, an increase of 8% from last year.

The figures for patients brought in on trolleys were in line with previous years.

Nine out of 10 had their condition assessed within 15 minutes, while 50% were seen by a doctor within 30 minutes.

About 11,00 patients attended A&E departments over three days

The walking wounded faced a wait of 28 minutes before being assessed, an increase of three minutes from 2003, and 50% were seen by a doctor in 46 minutes.

That figure was higher than in the previous four surveys, where it ranged between 30 and 40 minutes.

Three quarters of the walking wounded were seen by a doctor within 90 minutes of arrival, a lower percentage than in previous years.

The length of time for treatment to be completed rose for both walking wounded and trolley cases.

NHS Scotland's Information Statistics Division also issued figures which suggested that there were about 14.6 million face-to-face contacts between patients and GPs, 5.4 million with practice nurses and 4.6 million with community nurses each year.

Remained steady

The latest waiting time statistics were also published on Thursday, which showed that no patient waited longer than nine months for day inpatient or day case treatment at the end of June.

The number of patients waiting more than six months was 6,161 - almost 4,000 lower than the same period last year, but up on the previous quarter.

The average wait for those on the lists remained steady at 43 days, five days higher than last year.