Ambulance chiefs have defended their response to an Angus incident which left a cyclist lying on a rural road for half an hour with a broken arm.
Paramedics were initially sent to the wrong location outside Arbroath and a good Samaritan who came to the cyclist’s aid has condemned the handling of his emergency 999 call as “terrible”.
A claim by dog walker Tom Brown that a Scottish Ambulance Service call handler hung up on him has been denied, but the qualified nurse said he was furious over the delay in paramedics getting to the victim.
SAS bosses say the cyclist was reached within an appropriate response time for the level of injury.
Mr Brown was returning home on Friday afternoon when he came across the incident near St Vigeans, on the outskirts of Arbroath.
The male cyclist was lying in the roadway with a broken right arm after taking a tumble.
Mr Brown said a 999 call by another witness had been transferred to the ambulance control which is based in Inverness.
“They were insistent that someone would phone back to call out an emergency ambulance,” said Mr Brown.
“I told them I was a qualified nurse and informed them that it was obvious he had suffered an open fracture.
“They continued to inform me that someone would phone back to assess the situation and I was very angry.
“The call handler refused to give me her name and to me that is unacceptable.
“It was over half an hour before the ambulance arrived, but it turned out they had sent the ambulance to the wrong place and the crew had to phone their control room for directions,” he said.
“The whole situation was a piece of nonsense and I would say that is down to the centralisation of call centres,” said Mr Brown.
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman defended the call handler’s action and said: “A paramedic clinical adviser discussed the patient’s condition with the caller and triaged the incident as not life threatening for a response of up to one hour.
“An ambulance responded in 31 minutes and transferred the patient safely to hospital.
“There may have been difficulties with mobile reception but ambulance control did not hang up.
“All 999 calls are clinically triaged and prioritised so that those with most clinical need receive the fastest and most appropriate response,” he said.