Ambulance wait times now "extremely worrying" figures show

The Scottish Liberal Democrats are calling on the Scottish Government to offer more support to reduce “extremely worrying” ambulance wait times.

The party obtained figures which show nearly three thousand people waited more than eight hours for an ambulance to arrive after an initial 999 call in the last 12 months.

This is as well as more than 33,000 people who waited over two hours.

Party health spokesperson, Alex Cole-Hamilton said his party called for an inquiry into "avoidable emergency care deaths, but it was obstructed by nationalist MSPs who did not want to know".

He added: "If you or a loved one find yourself in a moment of crisis, you want to know that someone at the other end of a phoneline will be able to help.

"For high-risk callers to be waiting more than an hour for an ambulance to arrive on the scene is extremely worrying.

"The ambulance service has a phenomenally tough job. It is no surprise that they have been warning of pressure cooker conditions for years."

Calls are coded in order of priority, with purple the highest and red the second most serious.

The longest wait for a purple call was 119 minutes (three hours), with the worst for red being 685 minutes (11 hours).

The longest wait for any call was 1999 minutes, or 33 hours, however this was for the second least serious, yellow-coded call.

Mr Cole-Hamilton continued: "Rather than take for granted that ambulance staff will always be able to save the day, the SNP should recognise the pressures that the service is under and look again at what needs to be done to improve life for both patients and staff."

Scottish Government response

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "We apologise to anyone who has had an unacceptable wait for an ambulance.

"We are committed to ensuring that there are no unnecessary delays in transferring patients to hospital and continue to work closely with health boards and the Scottish Ambulance Service to ensure that emergencies are urgently responded to.

"We continue to invest in supporting SAS staff and patients, including a record number of staff recruitment since 2020, with a further 307 to be recruited in 2023/24."