Fresh fears have been raised about emergency cover in the north-east after it emerged an ambulance crew had to make a 20-mile cross-country dash to the scene of a fatal smash.
Ambulance chiefs have already been forced to defend their call handling staff amid claims they were confused about the location of the accident when the first person on the scene dialled 999.
That paramedics had to be dispatched from Huntly to a crash near Banff, about 40 minutes away, has led to more questions about the service being offered in Aberdeenshire.
Scotland’s police and fire and rescue services have faced a barrage of criticism for their decision to shut control rooms in Aberdeen and Inverness.
There are fears local knowledge will be lost and lives put at risk because of a centralisation scheme which will mean emergency calls being handled in Tayside, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Renfrewshire.
The accident in November on the A98 Fraserburgh-Fochabers road claimed the life of 21-year-old Nicole Clark from Turriff.
Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP Stewart Stevenson quizzed the Scottish Ambulance Service and although bosses were adamant its call handlers were not confused, they admitted the nearest available crew at the time was in Huntly.
Former government minister Mr Stevenson praised the work of paramedics, but asked for assurances from senior managers that extra support would be provided.
He said: “There will of course be occasions where multiple emergencies arise within a short period and local ambulances are fully engaged in responding to casualties.
“The public need to be confident that the ambulance service has procedures and plans in place to enable it to take such occurrences in its stride, without any undue delay.
“We know that the frontline staff will respond professionally to whatever set of circumstances they face.
“This is perhaps an appropriate time to seek an assurance that they are receiving support and back-up from management to allow them to continue to do so.”
Banff and Macduff Community Council members have said they are “concerned” that the nearest available mercy vehicle on the night of the fatal crash, which happened between Portsoy and Banff near Boyndie Aerodrome, was at Huntly.
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “The nearest available, appropriate resource is always sent to an emergency.
“In recent years we have invested in additional frontline staff for Grampian, where the average response time to a potentially life-threatening emergency is around seven minutes.
“This is testament to the dedication and professionalism of the teams.
“The nearest ambulance at the time was 19 miles away from the scene.”
After the accident it was claimed that an operator who took a 999 call from a young woman at the scene of the crash had no idea where it was.
The young woman who made the emergency call also said it took “too long” for the ambulance to arrive.
The 17-year-old said: “When they (999) picked up I said what had happened and told the operator that it was on the road between Portsoy and Banff.
“They kept asking where’s Banff and what town that was in and I told them that it wasn’t in a town it was in the countryside.
“Eventually they gave up questioning me and dispatched an ambulance which took a lot longer to arrive than it should have.”
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