Scotland NHS crisis: Critically ill patients waiting nearly half an hour for ambulance crews

Some of the most seriously ill patients in parts of Scotland are waiting nearly half an hour for an ambulance to reach them, despite the fact the national service has a target time of just eight minutes.

Statistics collated by the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) show a major geographical disparity in the length of time it takes crews to reach patients falling into its purple category. They are classified as critically ill, with more than half of people in the category suffering cardiac arrest.

The longest wait is in the NHS Highland region, where the latest figures show the so-called 90th percentile response time – the time in which 90 per cent of patients are reached by ambulance crews – stood at 29 minutes and 42 seconds in the week commencing December 12.

Close behind was NHS Ayrshire and Arran, where the response time was 27 minutes and 45 seconds. NHS Grampian saw a response time of 27 minutes and 22 seconds, the statistics show.

It comes as figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives via Freedom of Information (FOI) show that since April last year, there have been 1,794 deaths of patients in the purple category whose wait for an ambulance exceeded the 90th percentile response time.

While the SAS has a target response time of eight minutes for critical purple category patients, the national average for the week beginning December 12 stood at 20 minutes and one second.

However, some areas are significantly below that average, although they still flouted the SAS target. In NHS Lothian, for example, the 90th percentile response time was 14 minutes and seven seconds.

The average response time has been increasing in recent weeks as the NHS comes under pressure in the winter months. In the week commencing November 21, the 90th percentile response time for purple category patients nationwide was 15 minutes and 57 seconds.

Some of the most seriously ill patients in parts of Scotland are waiting nearly half an hour for an ambulance to reach them. Picture: John Devlin

The week after that, the figure dropped slightly to 15 minutes and 53 seconds. But it rose sharply in the week commencing December 5 to 16 minutes and 29 seconds.

The figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives show in the 2021/22 financial year, there were 1,160 incidents of ‘purple’ patients dying where the response time was greater than the 90th percentile. The figure for the current financial year stands at 634.

But the SAS stressed the need for caution in interpreting the data, explaining it has “no way of linking the data between response time and mortality without looking at every individual incident manually”.

The service added in its FOI response: “These figures are representative of all situations attended whereby a patient may have been pronounced dead at arrival to scene, but therefore died prior to arriving or they may have been pronounced dead after receiving advanced lift support. We do not hold the information to specify this further and we do not hold reasons [or] cause of death.”

Dr Sandesh Gulhane, the Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary, said: “This shocking data lays bare how ambulance waiting times have spiralled out of control under the SNP. Thousands of lives have been needlessly and tragically lost despite the best efforts of our truly dedicated ambulance crews. My thoughts are with everyone grieving the loss of a loved one who died due to the late arrival of an ambulance.

“These figures expose how the SNP have mismanaged our health service during their 15 years in power and our ambulance service is now clearly well beyond breaking point.”

Dr Gulhane added: “The rise in deaths is occurring on Humza Yousaf’s watch. His inaction and flimsy NHS recovery plans are proving devastating for patients and crews on the frontline. He needs to either resign immediately or be sacked by Nicola Sturgeon.”

It comes after a doctor warned patients in Scotland's hospitals over the festive period could die "for no other reason than the broken system failing them”.

Dr Lailah Peel, chair of the British Medical Association’s west of Scotland regional junior doctors’ committee, said she had been told about ambulance crews taking so long to arrive that patients were dead when they got to them.

In a series of tweets, she went on to warn the situation in accident-and-emergency (A&E) departments could get worse over coming days, adding that colleagues in the NHS were "breaking" under the strain of a workload that was becoming "unmanageable”.

She wrote: "We talk a lot about the four-hour target, but there's so many more failures happening. Patients are waiting for dangerously long times – to get an ambulance, outside A&E, for triage, to be seen, for treatment and for admission. It's so incredibly dangerous.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Patient safety remains our priority and it is potentially highly misleading to link patient fatality figures directly to ambulance response times. In any death there will be individual circumstances which must be carefully considered.

“Scotland has unique geographical challenges, particularly in the north of the country, and we continue to support the Scottish Ambulance Service to ensure that resources are in place to ensure they maintain a fast and effective response.

“Despite a rise in demand for higher acuity calls, the ambulance service responded to over 68 per cent of their highest priority calls in under ten minutes and over 99 per cent in under 30 minutes in 2021/22.”