The health secretary has said NHS Scotland is in "recovery" despite a key waiting time target being missed for the 39th consecutive week.

Shona Robison said the health service was coming back from a difficult winter period, but called the latest statistics "encouraging".

In the week ending April 29 emergency departments saw 26,489 patients, with 90.6% of them admitted, transferred of discharged within four hours.

That is below the Scottish Government's target of dealing within 95% of cases in that time, but marks an improvement on previous weeks.

The key health target has not been met since July last year.

More than a quarter of patients at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary spent too long in A&E, with figures for the hospital showing 73.6% were admitted, transferred or discharged within the four-hour target.

Across Scotland 57 patients spent more than 12 hours in A&E in the week ending April 29, while 226 were there for eight hours or more.

Ms Robison said: "While A&E statistics will always fluctuate it is encouraging to see over nine in ten patients were admitted, discharged or referred within the four-hour target, which signals a recovery for Scotland's NHS following a difficult winter."

She added: "Day in and day out, our health and social care staff across our NHS continue to deliver world-class care and their commitment is second to none.

"Scotland's core A&Es have been the best performing across the rest of the UK for more than three years, partly due to our focus on improving patient flow so that once people arrive into A&E they can be admitted or transferred in a timely way."