A frail pensioner waited 40 minutes for an ambulance after suffering a heart attack on Christmas night.
The 87-year-old was said to be in “severe pain” by her family, who have called for answers from the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Her son claims call handlers said several times that paramedics were on their way before a supervisor admitted no ambulances were available.
At that point he panicked and called police, who arrived at his mother’s home in Barnhill with a life-saving defibrillator before paramedics eventually reached the scene, shortly before 3am.
He said: “I called a number of times asking where the ambulance was and explained that my mother was in severe pain and not breathing well.
“Eventually I requested to be connected to a supervisor and, after pressing her as to why she could not provide an estimated time of arrival, she admitted: ‘We don’t have one available’.
“I called the police, who were superb. They arrived complete with a defibrillator and officers who clearly knew what they were doing. They got her into a police car just as an ambulance finally arrived.”
The pensioner, who asked not to be identified, is now recovering from her ordeal in hospital. Her family believe the delay could have been fatal.
“I believe that my mother has been put at increased risk of damage to her heart by the lack of response and by the lack of clear information provided by the ambulance service.”
The son has asked the Scottish Ambulance Service for an explanation.
He said: “My mother and those concerned for her where misled into believing an ambulance was on the way when in fact no ambulances were available.
“This wasted a valuable 40 minutes when we could have tried alternatives. It robbed my mother of the opportunity to get treatment quickly and we feel extremely angry about it.
“I accept that it’s difficult to provide coverage on Christmas Day, but it’s simply a question of scheduling based on previous experience and somebody, somewhere has failed and failed badly.
“I’m flabbergasted that in this day and age we can’t organise Christmas holiday coverage of an emergency response service.
“Consultants have confirmed that my mother’s heart has been badly damaged. I can’t say whether was because of the 40-minute wait, but it can’t have helped.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “We appreciate that the patient and her family had an anxious wait for the ambulance, but at the time of the call we were experiencing very high demand in Dundee. Between 1am and 3am on Boxing Day our crews responded to an unusually high number of emergencies during what was an intense period of activity.”
But the son was unhappy with the response, describing it as “flim flam”.
He said: “They know it’s going to be busy on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. They should have scheduled enough vehicles.
“They should also have been honest when we called. They may have contributed to the damage to my mother’s heart by failing to give us correct information.
“This isn’t a game this is my mother’s life and I’m flabbergasted that they think this is acceptable. It’s a shocking failure.”
pswindon@thecourier.co.uk