A UNION has called on the Scottish Ambulance Service to declare a major incident as average waiting times creep up.

Unite the union claim that the average turnaround after an ambulance call out has increased from 1 hour to 6 hours and are calling for the service to declare "major incidents" where patients are left waiting longer than half an hour.

The call comes as the status remains at normal, but if upgraded to "major incident" then other health services are required to assist.

Unite claim there have been "substantial" delays in being transferred to hospital with some waiting up to 24 hours for a bed.

Earlier today we revealed how nearly half of patients who attended accident and emergency at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital waited more than the four hour target set by the Scottish Government.

Jamie McNamee, Unite Convenor at the Scottish Ambulance Service, said: “Unite has asked the Scottish Ambulance Service to declare a major incident status arising from excessive hospital turnaround times due to the significant impact on all outstanding 999 calls. The reality is that there are excessive waiting times for paramedics to attend to a patient in the community as they are being held up at hospitals.”

“On average the waiting time taken for an emergency call out to a 999 call has grown from around 1 hour to 6 hours to complete.  Due to the system overload in NHS Scotland, there is the potential for adverse clinical events to happen to patients in the community. It’s essential that we elevate the status immediately because having ambulance crews tied up for extensive periods and subsequent fatigue, due to the long hours, is a known public safety issue. Lives of both the public and the crews are being put at risk.”

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson 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."