Fife: 80-year-old woman waited five hours for ambulance

Alex Rowley has written to the new health secretary Neil Gray MSP calling for a review of Ambulance Services across the Kingdom.

Highlighting the case of an elderly lady who had to wait five hours for an ambulance after having a serious fall, Mr Rowley said the situation is worrying and must be addressed.

He said: “My constituent in her 80s with underlying health issues fell and was in serious pain, an ambulance was called and repeated calls were made to the ambulance service and the hospital, but the ambulance did not arrive until five hours later at one o clock in the morning."

He added: “There is a trend of ambulances being lined up at the hospital waiting to get patients in whilst people wait hours and hours when in need."

The Labour MSP raised concern over delays in ambulance responses and waiting times at hospitals directly with NHS Fife chiefs at a recent politicians meeting.

Alex Rowley raised concerns after a woman in her 80s suffered a serious fall and had to wait five hours for an ambulance. (Image: Contributed)

He continued:  “When the issue was raised directly with NHS Fife, the CEO suggested this was down to ambulance staff taking a coffee break when at the hospital, and this was why there were lots of ambulances outside the hospital.

"I challenged this view as being incorrect and I have once again raised the issue directly with NHS Fife, who need to get on top of the admissions issues causing much of the delays.

“I want to see a review of ambulance capacity in Fife as I am also told we have ambulances travelling much further afield to cover, and this also leads to greater delays getting to those who are in need of the service.

“The Scottish Government and the executives in charge of our NHS in Fife must address these concerns and ensure that the ambulance cover in Fife is at a level that can respond when people are in desperate need of medical support.”

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) have apologised for the delay in reaching the woman. 

A spokesperson said: “We’d like to sincerely apologise for the delay in reaching the patient. We aim to reach people as quickly as possible but acknowledge that lengthy hospital turnaround times in the area meant that patients had to wait much longer than we would like.

"Within NHS Fife over the past week, the average hospital turnaround time has been in excess of an hour, with a number of patients waiting over two hours.

Ambulances are often kept waiting outside Accident and Emergency at Kirkcaldy's Victoria Hospital. (Image: Contributed)

"We continue to work closely with NHS Fife to improve hospital turnaround times.  

"Despite these pressures within the Fife region, our median response time for our most urgent calls is seven minutes and 40 seconds, and this is in part due to the 26 additional staff we have recruited into the Fife region over the past year.”

A spokesperson for NHS Fife said: “Ambulance waiting times in Fife were discussed in depth at a meeting between the NHS Fife chief executive and local MPs and MSPs in December 2023, which Mr Rowley attended.

"Mr Rowley’s suggestion that the NHS Fife’s chief executive attributed ambulance waiting times at our hospitals solely to staff having a coffee break is inaccurate and entirely misrepresents the discussion that took place.

“During the meeting, Mrs Potter set out in detail the various reasons why ambulances may be parked outside the Victoria Hospital.

"These included the transfer of patients to wards across the hospital, to restock supplies or in periods of particularly high demand, patients may wait within ambulances with trained paramedic staff before being transferred to our Accident and Emergency.

"Mrs Potter also referenced a recently created staff area near the ambulance drop-off point to enable hard-working ambulance staff to have a well-earned break.

“We recognise that ambulance staff work incredibly hard, often in very challenging conditions to provide the best care for patients. The staff working in our hospitals are working equally hard to minimise waits and ensure ambulance turnaround times are as short as possible.”

The Scottish Government said it was continuing to support the Scottish Ambulance Service.

A spokesperson added: “Patient safety remains our top priority and we are determined to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in transferring patients to hospital.

"We continue to work closely with health boards and the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) to maintain a fast response to the most critically unwell.

“We continue to invest in supporting SAS staff and patients, including a record number of additional staff -1388 - since 2020, with a further 317 on track to be recruited by April 2024.

"We have provided an additional £50 million to support ongoing increased staffing costs.”