Thousands of ambulances waited almost two hours before being able to drop off patients at A&E wards at Scottish hospitals last month.
Figures uncovered by Scottish Labour found that 2,731 ambulances were delayed by at least one hour and 50 minutes in October.
And at the flagship Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow the turnaround time was more than three hours – with 69 waiting three hours and 40 minutes in the week beginning October 10.
Anas Sarwar today warned Nicola Sturgeon that "lives will be lost" if the situation does not improve.
Speaking at First Minister's Questions, he said: "This Government has no grip of the NHS crisis. Staff are being asked to do the impossible. Patients are being asked to accept the unacceptable. But this Government are still in denial.
"We have growing queues at A&Es for treatment, ambulances off the road for hours trying to drop off patients, and people waiting in pain for help to come.
"All of this is before we have even reached the worst of winter. Lives will be lost as a result. The Health Secretary now says it’s going to take another five years to fix the problem – a problem that has been 15 years in the making.
"After 15 years of SNP Government, patients shouldn’t have to wait a minute longer.”
Ambulance staff are among the NHS workers who are threatening strike action over a pay dispute.
Scottish Ambulance Service workers who are members of the GMB union and in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area voted overwhelmingly for industrial action earlier this week.
Physiotherapists and midwifery staff have also backed a walkout over pay.
It comes as waits at emergency departments in Scotland have reached record highs, with 69 per cent of patients waiting at least four hours to be admitted, transferred or discharged in September.
Anas Sarwar quoted from an ambulance driver who contacted Labour to tell of his concerns from the front line.
The driver said: "Waiting time at the Queen Elizabeth and elsewhere are not a post-pandemic issue, we have been raising this for as long as I’ve been in the service.
"But sadly, the times are getting longer, patients are getting sicker, and it’s happening in all seasons now – not only the winter months.”
Sturgeon said she would always listen to concerns from staff in the health sector but stressed additional funding is needed from Westminster to tackle the crisis.
She added: "We take these responsibilities extremely seriously every single day – every minute of every single day.
"But the fact of the matter is, the pressures on our NHS are not divorced from the wider budgetary issues.”
The First Minister added the Welsh Labour Government had also expressed concern that the country’s NHS will be "hell on earth" without additional funding from Westminster.
Sturgeon continued: "How come it is the case that Labour in Wales can recognise that reality, but Labour in Scotland is so clearly filled to defending the Tories they are blind to that reality?
"We will do everything we can in terms of the management of our NHS, but the fact of the matter is we do need more funding for our NHS and that can only come from decisions that are taken at Westminster."
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