Anger as patient is forced to wait TWO DAYS for an ambulance to show up as Scotland's 999 crisis deepens

A patient was forced to wait two days for an ambulance in a 'terrifying' case that lays bare Scotland's deepening 999 crisis.

The patient near Edinburgh was forced to sit tight for 48 hours as their condition deteriorated after making an emergency call.

Another patient in Ayrshire and Arran waited almost 33 hours earlier this year before being transported for treatment.

And a third patient in the Grampian area was made to hang on for almost an entire day before medics finally arrived.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the delays were 'unacceptable'.

He added: 'It is disgraceful that patients, including some fighting for their lives, are waiting so long for an ambulance to arrive.

'Despite the best efforts of dedicated paramedics, patients are being failed by SNP ministers who are too stuck in their Holyrood bubble to fully appreciate the scale of this crisis.

'These unacceptable figures are terrifying because we know that lives are needlessly lost because of excessive waits for ambulances to arrive.

'The brutal combination of the SNP's dreadful workforce planning and their failure to tackle ambulance stacking has caused this crisis.

But Health Secretary Neil Gray still doesn't have a plan to fix it and, unless and until he addresses delayed discharge in hospitals, he can never hope to do so.

'In contrast, the Scottish Conservatives have a common-sense plan to address this situation by scaling up temporary capacity, which would ensure there is always bed capacity and reduce ambulance turnaround times.'

The figures were obtained by the Scottish Conservatives through freedom of information requests to the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS).

The SAS categorises 999 call-outs with colour codes, depending on how sick or injured the patient is.

A purple category patient - those whose lives are deemed most at risk - in Glasgow was forced to wait well over four hours before an ambulance arrived in February this year. Another patient in Grampian waited 1 hour and 37 minutes in April.

An amber category patient - those deemed in need of hospital specialist care - in Grampian faced a 22-hour wait in February.

And a yellow category patient - those deemed need of care but with non-life threatening injuries - in Lothian waited 48 hours for an ambulance in May this year. Dr Gulhane said paramedics are doing their best to keep patients safe, but they are being let down by the SNP.

But the SAS last night said its average call-out time was just over seven minutes.

A spokesman said the figures had been 'misrepresented' and that patients can get sicker after an initial call and assessment has been made.

He added: 'Our latest statistics show our median response time for our most serious calls is currently 7 minutes and 4 seconds across Scotland.

'We measure response times from the moment a caller contacts us, and the longer response times often relate to incidents where the patient's condition was assessed at a lower category and later upgraded as the condition has changed.'

Earlier this year, it was revealed a pensioner was left waiting in the middle of a road for three hours after a fall - as more than a dozen ambulances queued outside a busy A&E department.

Eddie Terry, 73, whose lower legs were amputated, fell out of his electric wheelchair when it hit a kerb, leaving him stranded until help arrived.

There was a three-hour wait for an ambulance - but it later emerged that 13 of the vehicles were outside A&E waiting for space to be freed up for patients.

Mr Terry, of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, said his wife Mairi, 59, was told by an NHS call-handler that her husband's case was not deemed a 'priority'.

And in March, the Scottish Ambulance Service apologised for the deaths of 23 people in their care during the previous year amid hospital waits and long response times.

People were said to have died following issues with control centres, delayed responses and the time spent waiting at hospitals.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'Despite continued increased levels of demand, and the unique geographical challenges posed in some of Scotland's most rural areas, our ambulance crews responded to 442 of the most critical incidents across Scotland last week in a median time of 7 minutes 14 seconds.

'We continue to work closely with Boards and the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in transferring patients to hospital and emergencies are responded to urgently.

'This includes continued investment in the SAS workforce, with 1,388 additional staff recruited since 2020, and further recruitment underway this year..