Sick people are waiting for over an hour in ambulances outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital as it struggles to admit patients to its A&E department.
Data, obtained by the Paisley Daily Express, shows that patient handovers at the hospital on September 8 were taking on average one hour and seven minutes.
But in one recent incident an ambulance crew waited outside the Paisley hospital for nine-and-a-half hours before they were able to hand over a patient to hospital staff.
It should, in normal circumstances, take no longer than 20 minutes.
Now desperate paramedics are calling for immediate action to end the growing ambulance crisis, arguing average response times to 999 calls have rocketed.
They say that nationally the average time for an ambulance to attend, help and hand a patient over to hospital has soared from approximately one hour to six.
Unite the union says the wait means paramedics are missing three 999 calls while located at a hospital waiting for patient discharges.
Jamie McNamee, Unite convenor at the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), says ambulance chiefs must declare major incident status at any hospital where paramedics have to wait more than 30 minutes.
The move would mean other bodies like NHS Scotland, community health workers or the army could be brought in to provide support and free up paramedics to get on with their jobs.
Mr McNamee, said: “Holding these crews back for longer than 20 minutes means the backlogging of actual emergencies.
“This could be a matter of life and death.
“It is my experience that the staff of the SAS come to their workday day in/day out to do the very best for the people of Scotland.
“But there is huge pressure, and resentment towards the organisation, being built up within these hard-working individuals.
“In times of crisis, often pressure is brought to bear on those on the frontline despite their inability to alter the situation.
“Staff are feeling the burden of expectation rising and this is being manifested in many managerial behaviours.”
The Express revealed in July how a pensioner faced an “intolerable” 22-hour wait for an ambulance to take her dementia-stricken husband to hospital.
The frail 86-year-old, who lives in Paisley, could not get out of bed and was suffering from dehydration when his GP told his concerned wife to call for am ambulance.
The elderly couple spent the night sleeping in chairs in their living room, and were called every two hours throughout the night to tell them there was still no ambulance available for them.
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said: “The NHS is currently experiencing significant sustained pressure across Scotland due to hospitals operating at or near full capacity and staff abstractions.
“These capacity challenges are because of increased Covid-19 cases and increasing non-covid demand, and are causing lengthy hospital handover delays.
“In response to these pressures, we have escalated in line with our plans to maximise resource provision, placed all clinically trained staff on frontline duties, sought support from partners whilst working with health boards across Scotland to minimise delays.”
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has admitted for several weeks that the RAH is under mounting pressure from increased demand, more covid patients and staff absence.
A health board spokesman said: “Across Scotland, there is a significant demand on health services including emergency departments and receiving units which are seeing an increased number of patients with a broad range of conditions.
“This means our clinical staff are extremely busy caring for those additional patients as well as increasing numbers presenting with covid – whilst at the same time maintaining enhanced infection control precautions for all.
“Our ED teams have been working incredibly hard to see, diagnose and admit or discharge patients as quickly as possible.”
Download the FREE Renfrewshire Live app now for all the latest news, features and sport in your area. Available on both Android and Apple. Download here:smarturl.it/RenfrewLiveSocial
