Ambulance turnaround times at West Dunbartonshire's local A&E highest in Scotland

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Dumbarton mum has spoken of her agonising five hour wait for help after her six-year-old daughter stopped breathing.The shock incident came as new figures showed ambulance turnaround times at West Dunbartonshire’s nearest A&E were the highest in Scotland.Dumbarton’s MSP Jackie Baillie has warned that “lives are on the line”.Figures revealed that Paisley’s struggling Royal Alexandra Hospital, the nearest local A&E unit, had the highest turnaround time for ambulances in the country.The data covers the period from October 1 last year until January 31 this year.It revealed it took longer to complete the handover of patients to A&E staff there than anywhere else in Scotland.And it highlights how one crew waited 10 hours and 43 minutes to be freed up from the hospital.The impact of those turnaround times is being felt by residents, including one Dumbarton mum who told the Lennox of her experience.The local, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “My daughter ran through to the bedroom to try and get me and whacked her hip.“By the time she got to my room she was crying.

I went to scoop her up and she went limp.“I was telling her to sit up, but then I noticed that her eyes had rolled to the back of her head.“She had gone rigid, her face puffed up and she had gone blue.

I tried to shake her to get her to breathe.“She came round and I called for an ambulance. On the phone they asked if she was breathing.

I said that she was, but was lying in the bed, chalk white.“They said they’d get an ambulance out to assess her, but it didn’t turn up for five hours.We called at 3.50pm in the afternoon.