Concerns have been raised about the time ambulance crews are taking to respond to 999 calls in Tayside and Fife.
Statistics revealed the time taken to reach the most critically ill patients in Courier Country has gone up in the past five years.
Ambulances took an average of eight minutes and 14 seconds to get to patients classed in the purple category – the most serious – in Angus in 2019, which was up from five minutes and 17 seconds in 2015.
The group includes patients who have been identified as having a 10% or more chance of having a cardiac arrest.
The actual cardiac arrest rate across this category is approximately 53%.
In the next most serious category (red) – patients identified as having a 1% to 9.9% of a cardiac arrest — response times also increased in Angus, from six minutes and 13 seconds in 2015 to 10 minutes and 43 seconds in 2019.
Purple calls went up from four minutes 28 seconds in 2015 in Dundee to four minutes 49 seconds in 2019; from 5.24 to 6.34 in Fife during the same period; and 6.27 to 7.26 in Perth and Kinross.
Red calls increased from 5.43 in 2015 in Dundee to 6.17 in 2019; from 6.06 to 8.02 in Fife; and 4.55 to 8.12 in Perth and Kinross.
Bill Bowman, Scottish Conservative MSP for North East Scotland, described the figures as “alarming.”
“The figures for the two most serious ‘999’ calls are alarming,” he said.
“First responders do an excellent job but response times can often depend on the proximity of the nearest ambulance station.
“People living in remote areas can often suffer because of this.
“Paramedics are working longer to see more patients because the SNP government aren’t giving the service the necessary support.
“More ambulances are now being dispatched with a single crew member.
“That’s unacceptable and we are seeing performance slip because of that.
“The statistics, particularly relating to the response times for our most critically ill patients in Tayside and beyond, are worrying and action needs to be taken to address this.
“In these most critical cases, seconds can be the difference between life and death.
“They are not just statistics.”
The Scottish Ambulance Service aims for a median response time of six minutes for purple calls and seven minutes for red.
A spokesman said: “We are saving more lives than ever since we introduced our new triage system, which enables us to better prioritise patients who are critically ill.
“We are working to improve our response times and tackling increasing demand by training an additional 1,000 paramedics across Scotland and we’re investing £78 million to provide an additional 1,000 new vehicles on the road.”
