Crews continuing to miss response targets

there have been 3,839 responses to 999 calls which have taken too long in the north division, out of a total of 10,104.

The proportion of responses to immediately life-threatening incidents which were met within the eight-minute target fell in the division in every year since 2013, from 71.9% to 62.98% last year, and down to 59.3% in the first four months of 2018.

The average response time has also dropped in each year in Grampian and the Highlands and islands, from 7.55 minutes in 2013 to 9.48 minutes this year.

In September, crews were called to attend to a man who ultimately died of hypothermia in his garden.

Paramedics were unable to reach Jack Thomson, from Sauchan in Aberdeenshire, until 90 minutes after a 999 call was placed, because two other calls were made at roughly the same time.

A probe found that the delay was the result of “exceptionally high levels of demand” caused by “a number of very urgent, high priority calls”.