999 delays see rise in complaints
The ambulance service is facing a soaring number of official complaints about patient delays.
New figures show the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) are receiving nearly five a day – double the rate of last year.
The biggest complaint was from patients who said they have faced long delays in mercy crews being sent out.
The service has faced repeated criticisms from distraught families who have complained that delays have caused preventable deaths.
Earlier this year the family of Gerald Brown, from Glasgow, said the 65-year-old dad had died at his home after waiting 40 hours for an ambulance.
Bosses at SAS have registered 1178 official complaints in the first nine months of this year. Last year the total was 876.
Ambulance chiefs have also admitted it has taken too long to answer many of the complaints.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex ColeHamilton said: “None of this is the fault of the heroic paramedics, technicians or call handlers. It’s the fault of the ministers who palmed off their warnings of shortages for years.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats are pushing for an independent inquiry into all unnecessary deaths connected to the ambulance waiting times crisis.”
Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie said: “Many of these complaints will be from people badly let down – and they deserve answers.”
Jamie McNamee, of union Unite, said: “There are factors feeding into the current problems such as delays in hospital admissions that paramedics have no control over.”
The SAS said: “The number of complaints we receive fluctuates year to year and those received in 2020/21 represent 0.08 per cent of all calls we responded to. We’re very sorry for a minority of patients who had cause to complain.”