Campaigners are celebrating finally securing an ambulance for their town.
Turriff will soon have ambulance cover following years of campaigning by the community.
Confirmation of the move was given to Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid during talks with health service representatives.
The Scottish Ambulance Service has confirmed an ambulance will be in Turriff on a “standby basis” when not responding to incidents elsewhere.
They are currently working with partners to find suitable premises in the town.
It comes as figures show in the last year 2,369 people have been forced to wait more than two hours for an ambulance across NHS Grampian. Only eight people waited that long in 2018.
Turriff has notoriously been one of the worst areas in the north-east for response times over the years, with patients regularly left waiting more than three times the national target of eight minutes from a 999 call.
Long road for a Turriff ambulance
There has been a long campaign for Turriff to receive its own ambulance.
In 2018, then North East Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald said the figures proved the need for Turriff to have its own dedicated ambulance cover.
The Unite union highlighted that the nearest ambulances were 16 minutes away in Banff, or 28 minutes away in Huntly, or 30 minutes away in Inverurie.
Mr Duguid, Conservative MP for Banff and Buchan, has also been campaigning for years. He held a public meeting which was attended by more than 150 people covering issues such as ambulance cover earlier this month.
Mr Duguid said: “Having repeatedly campaigned for improvements to be made on the poor level of cover experienced in parts of the north-east, I welcome the news that Turriff is getting its own ambulance.
“In life-threatening emergency situations, every second can count and over the years Turriff has continually suffered the worst waiting times for ambulances.
“These alarmingly long waits are terrifying and residents deserve better which is why having additional cover should go some way to addressing this issue for patients.
“Our heroic ambulance staff and paramedics do a fantastic job in challenging circumstances and I hope having an extra ambulance will help to alleviate the growing pressures that they are facing.”
‘People will be over the moon’
The community has been at the centre of the campaign pushing for Turriff to receive an ambulance.
Carol Allan, 53, has lived in the town for 31 years and is the chairwoman of Turriff Community Council.
The 53-year-old said: “We have been trying to get this for years and years.
“Two hours of waiting is no good when you are in an emergency. That is not acceptable really.
“When people hear about this they will be over the moon.
“It might give some community spirit back if folks know people have been listening to them.”
North-east ambulance crisis
Turriff has not been alone in facing an ambulance crisis. The whole of the north-east has been under increasing pressure.
One of the major problems is “turnaround time” which refers to the period ambulances spend outside hospitals before being able to attend their next call.
In 2014, of 21,410 trips to ARI, the average turnaround time was 19 minutes and 40 seconds.
That has steadily increased every year since then, reaching 26:27 by 2018.
The statistic soared to 34:38 for the 14,260 trips between January and the end of July in 2021.
Our table shows the increase in average turnaround times, hover over the lines to see the figures for each year –
What does the ambulance service say?
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: “Our latest statistics show our median response time for our most serious calls across Grampian is currently 6 minutes 51 seconds.
“The 30-day survival rates for our most seriously ill patients are at their highest ever level.
“We are accelerating the recruitment of new staff, building on record recruitment of 540 frontline staff last financial year.
“We are also continuing to invest in vehicles and equipment to ensure we are delivering the best possible service to communities such as Turriff.”
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