Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has apologised to angry Scots families affected by 'unacceptable' ambulance waiting times.
The SNP minister admitted he would be demanding answers if he was in the families shoes.
It comes after last week, Gerard Brown, 65, was found dead at his Glasgow home after it took 40 hours for paramedics to arrive after a 999 call.
Gerard, 65, was found collapsed at his home last Monday with cuts on his back and arms from the fall.
Lilian Briggs, 86, lay in agony on a hard floor for almost eight hours as she waited for an ambulance.
She blacked out on the way into her kitchen and suffered a double fracture to her hip when she collapsed.
She was trapped in such an awkward position, and in such pain, her desperate family were unable to move her in fear of causing more harm.
And even when the paramedics did arrive their first instinct was to seek the help of a second crew to help them move her safely.
But none were available so Lilian’s son Robert Ewing, 60, stepped up to help lift his frail mum onto a spinal board.
Now Yousaf has offered an apology to the families of Gerard and Lilian.
He said: “Some people have waited unacceptably long for ambulances and I apologise unreservedly to those affected.
“If I was in the shoes of the families of Lilian Briggs and Gerard Brown, and witnessed them suffering in pain and having to wait as long as they did for an ambulance, I would be angry and demanding answers as well.
"It is unacceptable.”
He said he would be made available to the families after investigations into the incidents have been concluded.
