Scotland's accident and emergency (A&E) departments have recorded their best December performance since 2009.

A total of 94.9% of patients were seen within the four-hour target time, which is a 5% increase from the previous December, narrowly missing the key waiting target.

Ministers have set a provisional target for at least 95% of A&E patients to be seen and admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

The latest weekly figures show the target was missed for core A&E departments in the week ending January 24, with 93.8% of patients seen on time.

However, the Scottish Government said the figure was up 6.6% than in the same week last year.

The poorest-performing health board was NHS Lanarkshire, with Wishaw General Hospital the worst-performing site with only 86.8% of patients seen in time.

Health secretary Shona Robison said: "We know that the winter months bring additional demands across the whole health and social care services.

"We have seen that demonstrated over recent weeks but, thanks to the dedication of NHS and social care staff, we have also seen a consistent improvement on last year.

"Today's figures continue that trend and December's A&E performance is the best since 2009.

"Performance at core A&E sites during the week ending January 24 is also up more than two percentage points on the previous week, with every health board seeing at least nine out of ten patients within four hours."