Ambulance time delay highlighted

RESIDENTS in an Angus town can be waiting more than 10 minutes longer for an ambulance than neighbouring places.

Performance statistics from the Scottish Ambulance Service highlighting the challenges facing the area throughout pandemic-hit 2020 have revealed mercy crews took longer to reach life-threatening Brechin patients than those in Forfar or Montrose

In the most urgent callout category last year, data for the 90th percentile performance (nine out of 10 cases) showed a Brechin figure of 29 minutes and 16 seconds.

The wait for purple category patients was a rise of more than 10 minutes compared to the previous year and almost 15 minutes longer than 2018.

The median Brechin response time was 13:22, compared to 11:14 in 2019.

There were 26 call-outs in the top priority category, three more than the previous 12 months.

It compares neighbouring Montrose where, in the worst cases, ambulances arrived after 18 minutes and six seconds.

That 90th percentile figure was an improvement on 2019 where it took 26 minutes.

Median Montrose performance for last year was a second over 11 minutes – a 40 second improvement on 2019.

There were 42 purple call-outs, down six from the previous year.

Forfar saw a wait of more than 19 minutes for life-threatening situations compared to 18 in 2019 and 13 in 2018.

The median response time for the town was 14 minutes and nine seconds, a shade under five minutes slower than 2019.

Purple category incidents dropped to 48 from 63 the preceding year.

Scottish Ambulance Service chiefs have said a range of factors can affect the response times of staff working “incredibly hard” in the face of pandemic challenges.

It aims to respond to 75% of immediately lifethreatening calls within eight minutes.

They added: “We dispatch the nearest available ambulances to our highest acuity calls and have access to a network of community first responders, air ambulances and paramedic response units.”