Yousaf under fire on ‘war zone’ wards

ONE of Scotland’s largest hospitals is a ‘war zone’ with elderly patients forced to endure ‘intimate’ examinations in corridors, Humza Yousaf was told yesterday.

In yet another humbling day for the Health Secretary, MSPs laid bare the state of the health service, including yet more evidence of lengthy ambulance waits.

Labour health spokesman Jackie Baillie led a debate on the NHS just 24 hours after Mr Yousaf confirmed military personnel will begin driving ambulances this weekend.

Firefighters, taxi drivers and the British Red Cross will also be deployed.

Mr Yousaf also yesterday refused to rule out setting up field hospitals in a desperate bid to ease pressure. Speaking at Holyrood, Miss Baillie said: ‘Don’t get sick, don’t need an ambulance and don’t need A&E in SNPrun Scotland. Because in each of these areas the Government is letting you down.’

She accused Mr Yousaf of having ‘done nothing’ for months to deal with the growing pressures facing health boards.

She said he was ‘clearly hoping the problems would go away by themselves’ until a newspaper revealed the death of a 65-yearold man. Gerard Brown died after waiting 40 hours for an ambulance at his home in Glasgow. Miss Baillie revealed the plight of another family from the North-East – with an elderly man dying three days after he waited seven hours for an ambulance following a serious fall. She said: ‘People had to die, and for it to be on the front page of national newspapers to shock this Government into action is shameful.’

She also attacked the SNP over A&E waiting times hitting a record high.

She said: ‘It’s so bad at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary that a doctor there has described to me the hospital as, and I quote, “a war zone” with elderly patients having intimate examinations carried out on trolleys in corridors without any privacy.’ Speaking at the end of the debate, Mr Yousaf said: ‘[To] anyone who has not received the standard of service they should have, I apologise absolutely unreservedly.’

He added: ‘Our ambulance service and the NHS have been there when we’ve needed them most, and in turn this Government will support our NHS.’

On the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland show, Mr Yousaf refused to rule out bringing in field hospitals to deal with increasing demand. He said: ‘I definitely wouldn’t rule it out but we have to look at whether or not we would end up pulling people out of acute sites to staff those beds.’