Good Samaritans who stepped in to help after a man collapsed near a doctors’ surgery were told to phone 999 when they raced inside to ask for help.
The elderly man fell ill just around the corner from Ellon Medical Group, on Schoolhill Road.
Concerned onlookers raced to help, with one dialling 999 and another running to the GP surgery to ask the receptionist for assistance.
But when he arrived at the front desk, he claims the receptionist told him she couldn’t get the doctor out – leaving him “fizzing mad”.
He said: “I asked if a doctor could come out and assess the man – I didn’t know what was wrong with him – he could have been having a stroke or a heart attack for all I knew.
“But they just said ‘no we can’t do that; you’ll have to phone an ambulance’.
“I went back out to the man and his wife, but after about 10 minutes I went back again to the doctors – the ambulance still hadn’t arrived – and I asked again for medical asistance.
“I explained that we had already phoned for an ambulance, but that he really needed someone to come and help him straight away – I was told again that they could not send a doctor out.”
The drama unfolded at about 11am on Wednesday, when all the doctors were in consultation with surgery patients.
By the time the onlooker – who wants to remain anonymous – got back to the ill man, a traffic warden had also stopped to offer the group her assistance.
After he told her what had happened at the doctors’ surgery, the traffic warden offered to go round – and pointed out that she was warning a body camera, so could record the conversation.
The onlooker claimed: “The receptionist’s tone must have changed, as shortly afterwards, the practise manager and a doctor came out.
“It was around 45 minutes since the chap had first collapsed.
“An ambulance arrived shortly after.”
Last night, a spokeswoman for Ellon Medical Group Practice said: “The first person who visited the Ellon Health Centre seeking doctor’s assistance in connection with the incident, given the explained emergency and location, and that the duty doctor was currently engaged with a patient consultation, was correctly advised to call 999 for the ambulance service.
“To clarify, the incident which occurred was not in the immediate vicinity of the health centre.
“The duty doctor attended the scene as soon as practically possible to provide assistance.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman confirmed they had received two calls for help.
He said: “Our calls are prioritised to ensure that the sickest and most seriously injured patients are given the highest priority.
“We received two calls in relation to this incident: one at 11.28am and a second at 11.57am to say the patient’s condition had deteriorated. In response to the changing information, the second call was coded ‘high priority’ and the nearest available ambulance was dispatched, arriving at the scene eight minutes later.”
Local councillor Gillian Owen said she had been contacted about the incident by “several” people.
“The constituents I have spoken to are really outraged to hear this, and they are really loking for assurance thatif it happens again, there are new processes in place that will offer assistance,” she said.
“To be fair the doctors will be in their consulting rooms so may not actually aware that there is an emergency outside. If they were around they too would want to help, after all the doctors ethos is to save lives.
“I do hope the patient makes a swift recovery and the doctors’ surgery looks into this case to see if they could do better in future.”
