A pensioner had to wait in pain for an hour before medical assistance could reach him after falling in a north-east town centre.
John Maskame, 81, hit a pothole and fell off his electric bike near Peterhead Academy on Wednesday morning, shattering his hip as a result.
But despite “lying in agony”, he waited 54 minutes before an ambulance arrived at the scene – and almost two hours before he was eventually admitted into Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Mr Maskame, who broke his hip in the accident, instead relied on the help of teachers from the nearby school until paramedics reached him.
And last night, his son, William, branded the situation “disgraceful” and said no one should be made to wait that long for an ambulance when hurt.
He said: “He told me that a passer-by managed to get him off the road and sat with him until the ambulance eventually arrived.
“There were also two teachers from the academy who came out to help as dad was in quite a bit of pain.
“It took around 60 minutes for a doctor to arrive, and then the ambulance was another 30 minutes after that. I know paramedics have a hard job, and I don’t blame them for this, but the system itself is wrong.”
Mr Maskame was made to sit up against a wall until the doctor travelled from Aberdeen to administer morphine for his pain.
He underwent an operation to repair his hip – which was shattered in two places – on Thursday and is hoping to make a full recovery.
His son’s anger over his wait to get medical attention comes just a day after the ambulance service revealed that its paramedics were being deployed to GP practices to ease the pressure on local doctors.
Local MP David Duguid yesterday said the situation must have been “extremely distressing” for Mr Maskame.
“Unfortunately, this type of experience has become all too commonplace in recent years.”
A spokeswoman for the ambulance service confirmed a unit arrived on the scene at 12.53pm.
“We received a call at 11.59am on Wednesday, April 18, to attend an incident at Prince Street, Peterhead and the incident was not considered to be immediately life threatening,” she said.
“Mr Maskame waited longer than we would have liked as we were experiencing very high levels of demand at the time and we will be apologising to him directly.
“We are currently in the process of training and recruiting an additional 1,000 paramedics over five years which will further enhance our cover across Scotland.”
