The Scottish Liberal Democrats have demanded an inquiry into avoidable deaths caused by lengthy blue light waits.
Between 2019 and 2023, the Scottish Ambulance Service’s response times to purple calls – where patients are identified as having a 10 per cent or more chance of having a cardiac arrest – increased in every local authority area except Shetland, Freedom of Information figures obtained by the party revealed.
The cardiac arrest rate in this category is about 53 per cent.
A patient in Glasgow waited two hours and one minute for a response to a critical call last year – the highest of the year – followed by Aberdeen City with one hour and 54 minutes.
Over the same time period, 28 local authorities experienced an increase in average waiting times for red calls – the second most serious category.
Red calls are categorised when a patient has between a 1 per cent and 9.9 per cent likelihood of cardiac arrest, or having a need for resuscitation interventions. A Highland patient waited eight hours and 58 minutes for a response in this category, followed by eight hours and 55 minutes in Aberdeen.
Red level waits did not increase in Edinburgh, Midlothian, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian. The longest waiting time for any call, which includes less serious amber and yellow categories, was 1,066 minutes, or 17 hours, in 2023.
Here’s our rundown of the ten worst performed areas in Scotland for critical ambulance wait times.
1. Aberdeenshire
Residents of Aberdeenshire experiencing a 'critical' health emergency face an average wait of 13 minutes 32 seconds - increasing the risk of death from heart attack or stroke. The rural nature of the area - an aspect that occurs frequently in this list - plays a huge role in delaying ambulance responses, particularly over great distances Photo: Michal Wachucik
2. Na h-Eileanan Siar
Residents of Na h-Eileanan Siar also face average waits of over 13 minutes. Outer Hebridean ambulance response times for purple incidents average 13 minutes and seven seconds. Unsurprisingly, all of Scotland's island areas feature as one of the top ten worst performing regions for ambulance response times Photo: Ian Woolner
3. Argyll and Bute
The average wait for a critical incident response on Argyll and Bute - 11 minutes and 32 seconds - is around two minutes quicker than Aberdeenshire Photo: Andrew Milligan
4. Orkney
Close behind Argyll and Bute is Orkney - with an average wait for a purple incident of 11 minutes and 30 seconds Photo: Jule_Berlin