The number of patient transfers by ambulance from Caithness to Inverness has almost doubled in five years, leaving greater reliance on crews from outwith the county.
Health campaigners say the leap has left major gaps in ambulance cover and staff at greater risk of exhaustion because of the frequent 200-mile round trips.
Figures, in answer to a Freedom of Information request from campaigners, show there were 559 Caithness patient transfers in the year ending October 2016. And 293 emergency calls were handled by crews from stations outwith Caithness.
GMB union official John Marr said a lack of local ambulance cover left “a disaster waiting to happen.”
Local MSP Ed Mountain yesterday cited a “lack of coordination” between NHS Highland and the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) amid service reforms that were demanded by budget pressures.
The data confirmed that the county is regularly without local ambulance cover. It also revealed that between last November and January this year local crews lost 60 hours through “fatigue.”
Kirsteen Campbell of the Caithness Health Action Team described the situation as “worrying.”
She said: “There were between 11 and 19 transfers per week to Raigmore but there are only three ambulances in the county.
“We’ve had at least two incidents where there’s been a category-A emergency call which should have an eight-minute response time and ambulances took upwards of 30 minutes,” she said. “In both cases a patient died.
“Tying this in with the downgraded maternity service, the new unit is going to rely heavily on transfers.”
A health board spokesman said NHS Highland and the SAS were working closely and that the maternity shake-up had “had next to no impact on ambulance provision.”
He acknowledged that there had been an increase in hospital transfers “as a result of changes in clinical pathways to allow patients to be provided with care in specialist centres.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “Our ambulance crews are saving more lives than ever. The service is working with Caithness General Hospital and NHS Highland on transfers and is currently carrying out a vehicle replacement programme.”
