IT’S A 21ST CENTURY OUTRAGE
Daughter hits out after OAP’s long wait for ambulance in 3C
waited for help in the 3C cold. His daughter Sara, 34, who rushed from work to be at her father’s side, described his ordeal as “a disgrace”.
She said: “We were having to bring him hot-water bottles and cups of tea to keep him warm – but he had no pain relief for hours.
“He was left to lie on the pavement in the cold, in the pouring rain. He could have caught hypothermia.
“It’s a terrible way to treat anyone, let alone someone in their 70s. We could see he was in pain, he told us that, but there wasn’t much we could do, because we were told not to move him or give him any kind of painkiller.”
One neighbour said she was “hugely concerned” about leaving Michael outside in the “Baltic” temperatures.
The woman, who asked not to be named, said: “At one point, there were about a dozen of us standing around him, trying to do our best to help.
“We were getting conflicting advice from the people at the emergency services, at NHS 24 and the local medical centre. Some of them said we should move him but then others didn’t.
“We didn’t know what to do and the ambulance crews seemed to be taking forever to arrive.”
Michael was eventually taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where it was confirmed that he had badly broken his ankle.
Scotland Patients’ Association chairwoman Margaret Watt said the incident showed ambulance services are “stretched to the limit”.
She said: “Emergency services are constantly under pressure, particularly at this time of year.
“Ambulance crews have to stay with patients in the A&E department until they are signed over to staff at the hospitals but, with services struggling to cope with demand, all this does is take crews off the road.”
The Scottish Ambulance Service said they experienced “an exceptionally high, out-ofthe-ordinary level of demand in Edinburgh and across Scotland” on Thursday.
A spokeswoman added: “We would like to apologise to the patient for the lengthy delay.
“All 999 calls are prioritised to ensure the sickest and most seriously injured patients are given the highest priority.”