Winter weather hits ambulance response times

• One of the Scottish Ambulance Service's newly delivered 4x4s which are specially designed to cope with severe winter conditions

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) has a current target time of eight minutes to reach three-quarters of category A emergency calls.

But according to figures obtained under Freedom of Information legislation, the SAS reached only 72.7 per cent of category A calls across mainland Scotland within the target time between 7 December 2009 and 6 December last year.

And official statistics from the previous year show that ambulance responses are getting slower, with average response times to 999 calls dropping by 0.3 per cent in the last 12 months..

The FoI request also reveals two extraordinarily long waits for an ambulance, which officials claim were solely due to weather conditions. In November, an ambulance took three-and-a-half hours to reach a category A incident in snow-affected Tayside when a person was recorded as not being alert after falling. The outcome is not known.

But the slowest response time recorded in the past five years happened on 6 December when up to 16in of snowfall brought central Scotland to a standstill and blocked both major and minor roads.

A patient in Lanarkshire had to wait nine-and-a-half hours for an ambulance to arrive after calling 999 complaining of heart problems. Fortunately, the documents reveal, the ambulance was no longer required when it arrived at the scene.

Opposition parties acknowledged the immense challenge undertaken by the SAS in overcoming two of the worst winters Scotland has seen in decades.

But Labour's health spokesman, Richard Simpson, said: "This drop in meeting target times would indicate that the Scottish Ambulance Service, like every other service, is having difficulties coping with the winter weather. The cabinet secretary will have to look at this in terms of forward resilience for the health service."

Conservative health spokeswoman, Mary Scanlon, said: "In recent years the Scottish Ambulance Service has been reaching a higher percentage of target response times, so obviously, with these considerations aside, this is very disappointing for their progress towards reaching target times.

Mary Watt of the Scotland Patients Association (SPA), an independent association organised to support patients in need, maintained that time was of the essence where emergency services were concerned.

"I can understand why this has happened because of the horrendous weather conditions we have been having, but any other reasons why target times aren't met should be looked at, whether the Scottish Ambulance Service is short of staff, short of ambulances, or short of funding. Ambulances should be on time because people depend on them. At the end of the day, it is the lives of the patients that are put at risk," she added.

Meanwhile Ambulance chiefs have invested in new vehicles and equipment to help cope with any further severe winter weather and taken delivery of eight 4x4 accident and emergency vehicles, with a further two to come by the end of this month.

The service is also investing in snow tyres and chains for a further 53 of its vehicles.