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Long wait for ambulance

Posted By Concerned bystander

"Long wait for ambulance"

About: Scottish Ambulance Service / Emergency Ambulance

(as other),

Elderly gentleman in his 80s had fallen and hit his head, had large open bleeding wound. Called an ambulance, had to wait 50 minutes for this to arrive as it had to come from outwith the city. Elderly gentleman, had to lie on the pavement on a cold windy evening whilst waiting. 4 different people had called the ambulance service and nobody could give a time frame for how long it would be. It was obvious that the call handlers had no local knowledge of the area.

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Responses

Response from Pat O'Meara, General Manager, Events, Scottish Ambulance Service 7 years ago
Pat O'Meara
General Manager, Events,
Scottish Ambulance Service

Head of Events

Submitted on 12/04/2017 at 17:31
Published on Care Opinion on 13/04/2017 at 11:10

Dear Concerned Bystander,

I was very sorry to read your story. It must have been very distressing for this gentleman and for everyone with him to have had to wait for an ambulance.

We do prioritise our calls so that we go to those with the most life threatening conditions first (such as cardiac arrest) and then lower priority patients, but this seems like an awfully long time for someone with a serious head injury. I am also concerned to read about what must have been a problem finding the address.

If you could contact me I will get someone to look in to this to see what happened when the 999 call was made and how it was responded to. My contact number is 0141 810 6101.

Regards,

Pat

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