An investigation has been launched into why it took so long for an ambulance to get to a young Moray cyclist knocked from his bike.
Paramedics took 27 minutes to reach Kieran McKandie when he was hit by a car on the outskirts of Elgin in March – nearly four times the average.
All emergency vehicles were busy at the time of the accident with the Scottish Ambulance Service now launching a review.
Encouraged by the development, the teenager’s parents intend to be actively involved in the process to ensure their son’s voice is heard.
Mother Sandra said: “We want to do this for Keiran’s benefit because he is the person that’s been affected by this.”
Since the accident the family has been pushing for answers about why emergency vehicles took so long to get to the accident and is eager for changes to be made.
Mrs McKandie said: “We need to need to get to the bottom of it to find out what happened and what recommendations can be made from it.
“There are big issues to look at. It’s OK to put more bodies on the ground but if the system is not fit for purpose then the new people will just get sucked into that system.
“We need to look at what the fundamental reasons are behind the delays.”
Yesterday Moray MSP Richard Lochhead met Pauline Howie, chief executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Mr Lochhead has been told response times in the region have been affected in recent months by stretched resources.
He said: “We all understand the pressure our emergency services operate under. Clearly if other vehicles can be used to carry out inter-hospital transfers that would free up emergency vehicles, where appropriate.
“Often hospital transfers can involve eight-hour round trips to Aberdeen and they can be tasked to other jobs while there.”
Mrs Howie said the rules about requesting ambulances to move patients between hospitals would be reviewed and expressed sympathy for the McKandie family.
She said: “Obviously the response time was much longer than what we would want. Our initial reviews have concluded that all the ambulances were busy on that occasion so we do need to review how we are managing these patients and modernise the service.”
