CREWS THANK RECORD FOR REVEALING TRUTH

PARAMEDICS have thanked the Daily Record for highlighting Scotland’s ambulance crisis. We have been campaigning on the growing problem with paramedics’ trade union Unite – who welcomed the First Minister’s moves yesterday. Unite ambulance service convener Jamie McNamee said: “I think the Daily Record requires a great deal of thanks from ourselves for bringing this into the public domain and giving it such a high profile.

“If it hadn’t been for you being brave enough to highlight this, we would have just battled on and on and people would have died.

“We would also thank the people who spoke up in the first

place to get it into the public domain.”

McNamee welcomed that the military were being brought in to “give us a bit of respite”.

But he said: “I am hugely frustrated it has taken so long for the Government to recognise the delays and the impact they have on people’s suffering.”

We told last month how a man of 94 died in the driveway of his home after waiting four-and-ahalf hours for an ambulance.

We also revealed that stroke victim Helena Walker, 67, waited eight hours for an ambulance before spending eight more on a trolley in a hospital corridor.

In the last week we told how the Red Cross had been drafted in to provide aid to waiting paramedics and patients.

Paramedics also told us of their frustrations and a week ago the Unite union called on the Scottish Ambulance Service to declare a major incident as the average waiting time rose to six hours.

Unite also called for pop-up wards in marquees to be set up to allow paramedics to return to 999 pick-ups.