A top MSP has claimed that ambulances will be left “acting like taxis” if the use of overstretched resources is not addressed in the north-east of Scotland.
Richard Lochhead met with health chiefs today after paramedics took nearly 30 minutes to reach a teenage cyclist who died in a horror car crash.
The representative for Moray expressed “significant” concerns about local ambulance provision to NHS Grampian chief executive Malcolm Wright in a bid to get answers on behalf of Keiran McKandie’s grieving parents.
The 16-year-old from Elgin died after his bike was involved in a collision with a car on a remote country road in Moray back in March.
The teenager’s parents Gordon and Sandra have been calling for an investigation since learning that medics took 27 minutes to arrive on scene – nearly four times the Grampian region’s average response time.
Mr Lochhead claims Moray based ambulances in the area are being tasked with work outside the area – meaning medics must come from further away to deal with emergencies.
And he expressed fears that using ambulances for non-emergency work – such as hospital transfers – could mean medics fail to get to time critical casualties.
He said: “If Moray based A & E ambulances are being increasingly tasked for work outwith Moray, and as a result ambulances from stations in Nairn or Huntly for instance are required to deal with incidents in Moray, then it’s no wonder there is a knock on impact for response times.
“Ambulances and their crews from Elgin, Forres or elsewhere in Moray are often tied up with patient transfers to Aberdeen or Inverness, which can take up most of the day and that means they are not available for calls in Moray.
“I appreciate that hospitals transfers are an integral part of day to day operations but I’m told that a lot of the time other vehicles rather than A & E ambulances could carry out this work.
“This needs to be investigated, otherwise our A&E ambulances will be acting as taxis rather than dealing with emergencies in Moray.”
Mr Lochhead and Mr Wright are to meet the head of the Scottish Ambulance Service, Pauline Howie, next week to discuss what action can be taken to ensure that ambulance resources in Moray are being used as efficiently as possible.
The MSP added that he would also be asking for an investigation into turnaround times at Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin.ambulance service has said previously that its policy was to always dispatch the nearest vehicle but that “variable factors” could influence response times.
Keiran was fatally injured following the crash with the Volkswagen Golf on the B9010 Kellas to Dallas road on March 20.
Paramedics on route to their base at Tomintoul were sent out to the crash site.
The three mile journey from Elgin should have taken about nine minutes.
But crews were believed to have been busy dealing with other patients when the 999 call came in.
It later emerged that it took 27 minutes for an ambulance to reach the scene of the collision.
The government target is for 75 per cent of ambulances called out on emergencies to reach patients within eight minutes.Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We work closely with hospitals to review ambulance turnaround times and handover arrangements to try and minimise the time it takes to release ambulance resources for other calls.
“Inter hospital patient transfers are undertaken on the advice of the requesting clinician and based upon their clinical assessment of the patient’s need for ambulance care.
“We monitor these cases with NHS Grampian and last year ambulance teams transferred over 650 patients with a clinical need for care from Dr Gray’s to Aberdeen and beyond.”