By Bill Heaney
Why do Scots have to wait so long for an ambulance? And why are ambulances backed up outside hospitals?
Tory leader Douglas Ross this week revealed that one in every ten ambulances in Scotland sat outside hospitals for hours waiting for patients to be admitted.
He said: “That means that, in just one week, 700 ambulances across the country were stuck outside hospital for hours.”
There were reports of this happening on an ongoing basis outside hospitals across Scotland.
The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Shona Robison, admitted that some ambulances are taking longer than they should “to turn around at the front doors of our hospitals. Of course, similar pressures are being felt throughout the United Kingdom as we enter into winter pressures”.
She added: “Patient safety remains our top priority. I apologise to anyone who has experienced a wait for an ambulance to reach them or has had to wait too long in accident and emergency. I thank our ambulance staff, who are working extremely hard to maintain a fast response to our most critically unwell patients.
“The Scottish Ambulance Service is working hard with health boards to minimise delays in handover times. As part of the funding for the winter plan, the Scottish Ambulance Service has received an additional £50 million to help address the increased demand for its services going into winter.”
Douglas Ross said that a Tory freedom of information request on ambulance waiting times revealed some of the worst turn around times on record.
He instanced cases where one ambulance waited outside a hospital for 15 hours, another waited more than 10 hours and another waited more than 11 hours.
“The Government has known about the problem for years, so why does this scandalous situation keep on happening, he asked.
Shona Robison said that as part of the winter plan, the government was funding the Scottish Ambulance Service with an additional £50 million to help to address the increased demand for its services going into winter.
“In addition, we are investing £12 million in hospital at home to increase capacity and keep people away from the front door of our hospitals.
“The £50 million that has been given to the Scottish Ambulance Service to address the increased demand on the service is nearly five times the amount of money that the UK Tory Government is giving for health in its entirety in the budget next year.”
There was then the usual Westminster blame game when Ms Robison said it was lack of funding from central government that was responsible for so many of Scotland’s problems, including this one.
But Douglas Ross refused to back off: “Our FOI request has also uncovered some shocking ambulance response times.
“Purple calls involve the most life-threatening and dangerous situations for patients. Half of the patients in that category have had a cardiac arrest, and those calls have a target response time of six minutes.
“However, our FOI request reveals that some patients are waiting more than half an hour, and others are waiting 10 times longer than the target. Why should anyone whose heart has stopped wait so long for an ambulance to arrive?”
Tory leader Douglas Ross and Deputy FM Shona Robison clashed over ambulance response times.
He added: “The UK Government has provided the biggest ever block grant to the Scottish Government to deliver for public services in Scotland. It is failure by the Scottish National Party Government and SNP ministers that is having an impact on patients.
“The Deputy First Minister speaks about patients waiting a few minutes longer than the target, but some are waiting for more than an hour for a purple-category call. That is unacceptable. Staff morale is at an all-time low.
“Systematic problems are preventing front-line staff from giving patients the treatment that they deserve.”
But Shona Robison said: “We have record levels of investment in our health service, including in our Scottish Ambulance Service. That is in stark contrast to the real-terms cut that the UK Tory Government is giving the Department of Health and Social Care in England.
“That flows through, of course, to the resources that this Government has available for our health service. As for following Tory choices, with £10.8 million for our health service, I can say that we will not follow UK Tory spending plans; we will ensure that we protect our health service and our Scottish Ambulance Service.”