SNP FORCED TO CALL IN TROOPS
Army to take pressure off ambulance crews in battle to save lives
BRITISH Army personnel will be deployed to ease pressure on Scotland’s struggling ambulance service as medics face the most challenging winter in a lifetime.
Nicola Sturgeon yesterday revealed she was seeking help from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) as she apologised ‘unreservedly’ to patients who were forced to wait hours for emergency assistance.
At Holyrood, the First Minister admitted there had been ‘unacceptably’ long waits for some and said she had written to defence chiefs for ‘targeted military assistance’.
A formal request was sent yesterday for personnel to be deployed to mobile testing units in the Central Belt. This will allow ambulance crew members to be re-deployed from the centres to their frontline duties.
It is understood that government ministers are considering the possibility of military ambulances being used and that support could be needed over winter.
During First Minister’s Questions Miss Sturgeon was questioned about Gerard Brown, a 65-year-old from Glasgow who died waiting almost two days for an ambulance following a fall.
His GP, Dr Patrick O’Neill, a partner at Cardonald Medical Practice, repeatedly warned
‘I apologise unreservedly’
999 call handlers that the patient’s status was critical. Mr Brown’s family claim the GP told them that he would still be alive if paramedics had reached him earlier.
Miss Sturgeon admitted the waiting times for some patients were ‘not acceptable’, adding: ‘I apologise unreservedly to anyone that has suffered or is suffering.’
The Army also set up the mobile testing units, which were handed over to the Scottish Ambulance Service at the end of August 2020. Troops are also currently deployed to help four ambulance trusts in England following extreme pressure on services in recent months.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton revealed the mother of one of his constituents, Catherine Whyte – a retired nurse of 40 years who last month waited 15 hours for an ambulance – fell again last week and was forced to endure a further eight-hour wait.
This was after she fractured her feet and pelvis and was suffering from bouts of delirium.
Mr Cole-Hamilton said: ‘Only when my constituent told operators “my mum is dying” did the ambulance come, after yet another hour. The ambulance service have been failed by this government – just like... Catherine. This isn’t just the pandemic. They simply don’t have the resource to prioritise these cases. ‘Calling in the Army is evidence of a government that has done too little, too late.’ Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, who said on Wednesday people should ‘think twice’ before calling for an ambulance, will make a statement to parliament next week, setting out measures being taken by the Scottish Government to ease the crisis.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross criticised Mr Yousaf’s comments, calling them ‘dangerous and reckless’, and urged the First Minister to apologise on Mr Yousaf’s behalf – which she did not.
Instead, the First Minister said people should ‘never hesitate in calling an ambulance if that is the intervention they think is required’.
However, Mr Ross said: ‘This shouldn’t be happening in Scotland in 2021.
‘Last week, the First Minister wouldn’t accept the ambulance service is in crisis, surely the last seven days will have changed her mind?’
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I don’t challenge the extent of the pressure that’s on our ambulance service and indeed on all parts of our national health service. It is incumbent on me as First Minister, with all of my colleagues across government, as it faces up to these challenges.’
Pressure because of coronavirus, the First Minister said, was driving the problems being seen in the sector.
She added: ‘The fact that anyone in our country waits an unacceptable period of time for an ambulance when they need urgent care is not acceptable to me and it’s not acceptable to anyone, and that is why we will work closely and intensively with the ambulance service to support it to meet those challenges.’