A FAMILY tonight told of their “disgust” after a 90-year-old relative was left in the back of an ambulance for over 14 hours.
The frail grandad’s ordeal followed a 17-hour wait for the mercy vehicle to arrive after a fall at his Lanarkshire home.
Describing the OAP’s 31-hour nightmare before he was admitted to Wishaw General Hospital, his furious son-in-law said: “He was lying in agony in the back of that van along with two paramedics.
“That’s a waste of time and money — it’s taking valuable resources away.
My niece is a nurse so I know how hard she and her colleagues work. But the NHS is failing them miserably.”
The Scottish Sun snapped six ambulances sitting outside the hospital’s A&E unit on Tuesday.
An NHS Lanarkshire spokesman said: “We work with the Scottish Ambulance Service to reduce the length of time it takes for patients to be handed over into our care.
“Despite our team’s best efforts, we are aware that some patients have experienced extended waits.
“We’re very sorry that for some patients and families, these waits have caused concern.
“In the event that a patient has to wait in an ambulance, the clinical team will do regular checks on them.”
It comes after John Swinney was dubbed “dishonest” for refusing to accept the “unacceptable” state of Scotland’s NHS — as a report showed it has slumped drastically compared to England’s.
Stats show delays to life-saving cancer treatment and prolonged A&E waits are among key areas in decline.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows the health service still lags behind pre-Covid levels and productivity has “deteriorated” — despite an improving picture down south.
But the First Minister insisted our NHS was, in fact, “seeing more patients”.
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