A senior NHS figure expects soldiers will be brought in to drive ambulances in a bid to sort out the crisis in the service.
Pauline Howie, chief executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service, also said military emergency drivers and logistics staff could become available.
Patients are facing massive delays following a surge in calls to 999 handlers and ambulances stacking up outside A+E departments while they wait to transfer the sick.
The Daily Record has been at the forefront of exposing the problems in the emergency service.
We told of how 86 year old Lilian Briggs was lying in agony on a hard floor for almost eight hours as she waited for an ambulance.
At Holyrood this week, Nicola Surgeon issued an unreserved apology for the shambles and made a request for military support.
In an interview with BBC Good Morning Scotland, Howie provided more details of what this assistance could look like: "Request has been submitted for support from the military, and we'll be working closely with our colleagues over the course of the next few days to understand exactly the details of what is available based on what's been happening in the English ambulance service.
“We understand that their emergency drivers and other logistics staff... might be available for us.”
Asked if soldiers would drive existing ambulances or army ambulances, she said: “I would expect the former, and as I said we'll be working through the details of that over the coming days.”
She also said: “We’re currently experiencing an unprecedented period of significant and sustained demand on our services.
“That’s a result of increasing Covid-19 cases and also increasing non-Covid demand through illnesses and injuries.
“We’ve seen increased turnaround times at hospitals and staff absences due to isolating and these factors are all causing these unacceptable delays for patients.”
Meanwhile, a top surgeon has said the majority of the issues in Scotland’s hospitals and the knock-on effect to the ambulance service are not due to Covid.
Professor Michael Griffin, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, warned Scotland has “a real workforce problem in the NHS and in social care” that needs to be addressed and it is causing a “vicious circle” impacting all parts of the health service.
He told the same BBC programme that increasing numbers of Covid cases and infected patients in hospitals are adding to the “very, very complex problem” facing the health service – including under pressure paramedics.
“It’s not just due to Covid,” Prof Griffin said, adding that the pandemic is responsible for “probably 30-40% of the issues that we’re seeing”.
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