NHS Grampian poses the highest risk as a health board to the Scottish Ambulance Service because of what its chief described as limited improvements and delayed handover times.
The latest data shows ambulance turnaround times at the health board are now more than double those recorded in some other health boards, including Tayside.
In May, it was announced that NHS Grampian had been escalated to Stage 4 of NHS Scotland’s national performance framework – the second-highest level of intervention.
The chief executive of NHS Grampian has apologised to those who have faced long waits in ambulances or A&E.
STV News spent time with an ambulance crew in Aberdeen, who say regular ambulance stacking – queuing outside hospitals awaiting handover – is impacting their ability to treat more patients.
‘I’ve sat ten hours outside the hospital with one patient’
STV NewsJohn McCook joined as an ambulance technician in 2022 – and says long queues have become a regular part of the job.
“I’ve sat outside the hospital for about ten hours with one patient, which obviously in your 12-hour shift is most of it.
“We can’t obviously just leave the patient. We try and make them as comfortable as we can in the back of the ambulance on stretchers that aren’t designed to be on for long periods of time.
“There’s always been stacking in the time I’ve been on the road, but I wouldn’t say it’s improved that much.”
During the shift, the crew was dispatched to assist a woman who had fallen at her home and would need an x-ray.
STV News“That one was coded as yellow – a low priority call as she was conscious and breathing,” John explained.
“Sometimes yellow can sit and wait. Fortunately, that one came in as we were signing on – and there wasn’t anything life-threatening.”
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary has consistently struggled with some of the longest ambulance turnaround times in the country.
The most recent data shows an average turnaround time of just over one hour at Grampian – that’s around twice as long as NHS Tayside – and around ten minutes longer than Great Glasgow and Clyde, despite Glasgow having triple the incidents.
The flagship hospital for NHS Grampian also has have the lowest amount of beds per capita in Scotland – with 1.4 per 1,000 people.
‘It’s not the role we signed up for’
STV NewsDan Richards, who joined the ambulance service at the end of 2020, is working alongside John.
Their patient was taken in quickly – but they say that’s not usually the norm.
“We were obviously hopeful, given the time we arrived, that there aren’t too many vehicles here now – but when more vehicles turn up, that could change.
“As patients come in, they can be higher than the patients in our vehicle and they would need to be prioritised over our patient.”
Dan said crew spend on average four hours a day waiting to hand patients over – even with higher priority cases.
STV News“It can be quite difficult to manage a patient when we’re not really trained on managing patients for that long. We’re trained to stabilise the patients and get them into hospital.
“It’s not the role we signed up for. We’d much rather be out helping in the community, but it can be tricky battling with that, stuck outside a hospital trying to manage the fact there are people outside that do need help.”
He added: “The statistic of the average span of a paramedic’s career about five years; that’s a telling of the system we’re in unfortunately. It’s disheartening.”
The realities of ambulance stacking mean crews often work beyond their contractual hours.
STV News“It’s quite common for us to work an additional shift a month just with overtime overspill – we can’t just leave patient in the back of the vehicle.
“We’re ultimately here to care and look after people. If someone is very unwell in the community we’ll happily go out and respond to that, but it does impact whether we get our break.”
Last November NHS Grampian declared a critical incident, which saw some ambulances diverted to Dundee and Inverness due to “extreme pressure” on Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Michael Dickson, CEO, Scottish Ambulance Services said: “As a board, we understand there are risks in every party delivering health care to patients.
“But due to the extended hospital handover times in Grampian and limited amounts of improvement, it remains to be our highest risk as a board.’’
NHS Grampian chief Adam Coldwells said: “My genuine apology to anybody who has experienced queuing in an ambulance or in the emergency department awaiting treatment – absolutely not what I or any of our colleagues would want at all.
“I would seek everyone’s support for us to continue to work through our plans, to deliver on our plans to see than improvement.’”
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