The father of an 11-year-old boy who lay injured in the gutter after being hit by a car has claimed the case highlights the lack of ambulance cover in Caithness.
Robert Otley’s father, Captain Richard Otley, said that while a doctor and paramedics were at the scene in Watten quickly, they could do little as it was 75 minutes before an ambulance arrived.
The accountant, with a previous Army career, said it was another 15 minutes before his son could finally be loaded onto the ambulance, which came from Bettyhill, 43 miles away.
This timeframe has been disputed by the Scottish Ambulance Service, which said it was on scene much quicker.
Mr Otley said that his son walked from the back of the school bus into the path of an oncoming car.
“She couldn’t see him, it wasn’t her fault at all,” he said.
Robert suffered swelling to his head, cuts, bruising and lacerations. He spent a night in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, however was able to return to school yesterday.
Mr Otley said: “The core problem behind this isn’t really Robert’s accident, it’s the fact there is a chronic systemic shortage of ambulances in Caithness due to reorganisation of Caithness General to more or less as a satellite of Raigmore.
“The Wick ambulances were both unavailable. One was taking a pregnant woman to Raigmore, the other was doing a patient transfer between Caithness and Raigmore.
“In effect our ambulances are used as a taxi service and we are left with no emergency cover.”
He added: “The doctor had to leave her patients because the ambulance that was discharged from Bettyhill only had one driver and no technician.
“When the ambulance turned up they could not move him. That’s why the ambulance service called the doctor.”
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We received a call at 4.04pm on Thursday August 24 to attend an incident outside the primary school in Watten.
“Health care professionals were on the scene by 4.10pm and were able to provide treatment. This included a doctor and nurse along with two off-duty paramedics.
“We sent the nearest available conveying ambulance to take the patient to hospital, which arrived at 4.47pm.
“At the time of the incident, our Thurso and Wick crews were already attending to emergency calls.
“We are sorry to hear about the family’s concerns and would encourage them to contact our patient experience team to enable us to discuss these in more detail.”
