The ambulance service in Helensburgh is ‘in crisis’, the area’s MSP warned this week after a patient had to find their own way to hospital in an emergency situation.
Last month a Helensburgh GP practice spoke out about the mounting pressure on local ambulance services, with staff shortages meaning waits of up to 50 minutes for paramedics to arrive.
Now staff at a practice in the town have told Jackie Baillie that a patient had to make their own way to A&E on Tuesday last week following a 30-minute wait for a blue light ambulance.
The emergency services were called by a GP who has asked not to be named to avoid identifying the patient.
Last month it was reported that there have been at least six recent cases in Helensburgh of ambulances taking between 40 and 50 minutes to respond to patients suffering from suspected heart attacks and strokes. Local paramedics have also been inundated with requests to cover unmanned shifts.
Jackie Baillie said local ambulance services are heading towards a serious crisis and called on the SNP Government to step in to ease pressure on services.
“The fact that no ambulances were available in Helensburgh on a weekday evening will come as a shock to everyone who lives in the area,” she said.
“Nobody should be forced to find their own way to A&E in an emergency.
“But this isn’t an isolated incident. Our local ambulance staff are over-worked and they are not getting the resources they need.”
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said the call was for a ‘non life-threatening emergency’ – all shifts in Helensburgh, Arrochar and the Vale of Leven were fully covered at the time but local ambulance crews were responding to other patients, so an Arrochar crew was dispatched immediately.
This had to be diverted 12 minutes afterwards when it was sent to ‘a potentially immediate life threatening call’.
“While arrangements were being made to allocate another ambulance to the original call the request was cancelled,” he said.
“The average response time in Helensburgh for a life threatening emergency is around six minutes.
“A sudden rise in demand is the most common issue that affects ambulances responses, however time at hospital, along with weather and road conditions, are also a factors.
“Each case is triaged so that those with the most clinical urgency are given the highest priority and this does mean that some cases may wait longer if an ambulance has to be diverted to save a life.”
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