An Aberdeen man claims he had to wait 90 minutes for an ambulance to help his neighbour – who had been lying on the floor of his caravan for six days.
Robert Thorpe-Apps called 999 twice yesterday to seek help for two neighbours, and was shocked at the wait for both.
In one incident, he claims the casualty had to wait 90 minutes – while in the second, the man waited 12 hours for help to arrive.
Mr Thorpe-Apps lives at Blacksmiths Croft, a mobile home park in Bucksburn, and also maintains the site.
In the first incident, he spotted a neighbour lying on the floor of his caravan and raced to help him.
He discovered the man had been there for six days, and raised the alarm.
The 64-year-old said: “At first they said they’ll get someone and then they phoned me back, and then they said they’ll upgrade it. But it still took them an hour and a half to get here and we literally live less than a mile from the hospital.”
The man was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where he remains. His condition is not known.
At 7pm that same day, Mr Thorpe-Apps had to phone 999 again after finding an elderly neighbour in distress.
The man, who has “lost a lot of weight” and is in his 80s, was clearly in discomfort as an abscess on his neck was bleeding, with blood splodges over his bed.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on him for a few weeks and he was getting better, and then he went downhill yesterday, so I phoned and said I’m going to get an ambulance for him and that’s what I did,” Mr Thorpe-Apps said.
12-hour delay due to ‘backlog’ in area
After sitting with his neighbour for a while, he added: “I’d phoned them (ambulance service) back in the night and since I phoned 999 again, they asked if he was breathing.”
He told them that he was breathing and was conscious, adding that “he’s not right”.
However, he claims the ambulance service told him that there were delays due to a “backlog” in the area.
He was finally picked up at 7am today. Mr Thorpe-Apps claims the ambulance driver told him the man should have been taken in quicker because of his abscess – regardless of any other issues.
Under pressure ambulance crews and waiting times have become a growing problem in recent months.
Last month, a “major incident” was declared at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary as staff struggled to cope with demand, resulting in 13 ambulances queuing up outside with patients inside.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Ambulance Service explained that patients are clinically triaged over the phone, and in the case of the second patient a number of welfare check calls were made during the wait.
She said a call for the first patient was received on Monday, March 20 at 7.08am and crews arrived on scene at 8.04am.
She added: “We’d like to sincerely apologise for the delay in reaching both patients and for any distress caused.
“Unfortunately, at the time of the calls we were experiencing significant pressure on our services due to lengthy hospital turnaround times.
“We hope both patients are recovering well.”
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