No parent should be driven to a blind panic because of ambulance shortage

Most parents have at some point experienced the anxiety that sets in when a young child is really poorly and in need of medical attention. In my own case, my youngest son was 18 months old when what started as a bad cold suddenly became much more serious.

He would frequently develop relentless coughs that just wouldn’t let up whenever he had a virus.

But after one particularly restless and fevered night he changed from being rosycheeked and fractious to pale and troublingly quiet.

I called the GP surgery and they gave me same-day appointment.

When I got there the GP – one of those who loved the sound of his own voice – listened to my son’s chest and told me he couldn’t hear anything, before giving me the patronising pep talk that he liked to share with young mums.

It went along the lines of: “Sometimes children get fevers that make them a bit tired and sleepy, but just give him some Calpol and he’ll be fine in a few days.”

I felt in my bones that it was more serious than that. But it’s hard to argue with an experienced doctor who has just listened to your child’s chest and detected nothing.

I thought, as he inferred, that I was just an anxious mum.

But the next morning when I went to check on my son I noticed his breathing was rapid and shallow.

I should have rushed him to A&E there and then. But the doctor’s words, “he’s fine”, were still ringing in my ears from the day before.

So instead I ran to the GP surgery which was just along the road.

My son was limp in my arms. And when I opened the front door a doctor, who happened to be standing in the reception area, saw us and took us straight through to his surgery.

He listened to his chest, asked if I had a car and told me to take him to A&E immediately.

It turned out he had pneumonia and he was in hospital for a week.

I’ve never quite forgiven myself for not pushing back when that first GP dismissed my fears.

I’ll also never forget the blind panic I felt driving across town to hospital that day with my son listless in the back seat.

In the years that followed there were also a couple of less panicked trips to A&E, including one where my son, then aged three, arrived looking like the Statue of Liberty with five very large cactus spikes sticking out of his head.

My husband had bought a big cactus from Ikea and I took one look at it, imagined a toddler brushing past it or poking it, and decided to put it high up on a bookshelf out of harm’s way.

Intrigued, my youngest decided to climb said bookshelf, reached up for the cactus and knocked it off the shelf and on to his head.

Driving him to hospital looking like Sonic the Hedgehog as he yelled at me to get the prickles out, I couldn’t escape the contrast with the same journey when he was too ill to make a sound.

So when I read how little Kinsley McMillan’s family were forced to drive her to hospital in an emergency, I felt sick at the thought of it.

The two-year-old, who has a brain tumour, was suffering from a terrifying seizure and they couldn’t get an ambulance out fast enough.

The torment and fear when you know that every second counts is unimaginable. Every traffic light must have struck terror into them.

It’s something no parent should have to go through.

And no child should face a lengthy wait for an ambulance in a critical situation. None of us should.

Yet a freedom of information request recently revealed that the number of patients cancelling ambulance calls in Scotland because they are making their own way to hospital has increased by 670%, from 753 in 2016-17 to a total of 5,796 in 2021-22.

No one can doubt the dedication of Scottish Ambulance Service staff. Crews have worked tirelessly during the pandemic and continue to do so under enormous pressure.

But it’s on every health board and politician to make sure the patients they serve are not kept waiting in their time of need – and that ambulance workers are not operating under intolerable strain.

Shortages of doctors and nurses, exceptional demand over the pandemic and rising hospital admissions mean the health service in general is facing significant challenges.

Yet it rarely appears the priority for Scottish politicians in an age when mudslinging and self-promotion take precedence.

But with A&E waiting times the worst on record in March, this is fast becoming a crisis that could shape the political landscape in the years ahead.

Every traffic light must have struck terror into them

ORDEAL: Young patient Kinsley McMillan was transported to hospital by her family because no ambulance was available.