Ambulances with patients onboard were left waiting hours before being allowed to transfer them into the care of staff at University Hospital Wishaw.
NHS Lanarkshire’s director of acute services has made the admission following claims by patients and health workers about ambulances queuing up outside the hospital.
One woman who accompanied her 82-year-old mum by ambulance to the hospital told us of the "absolute chaos" at Wishaw General.
She added: "I went with my mum in an ambulance from a care home after several hours waiting for the ambulance. Nurses coming out to do patients stats. Still several hours to wait to be seen in A&E. Mum still in ambulance.”
She labelled it an “appalling sight” and claimed 15 ambulances were waiting outside on patients being “off loaded” with area managers in attendance, adding: “Scottish Government won’t allow a manager to send out a major incident message.”
The claim that hospital managers were prevented by the Scottish Government from declaring a major incident have been refuted by a spokesman who insisted that would be a decision for NHS Lanarkshire to make autonomously.
A Scottish Government spokesman told Lanarkshire Live: “This claim regarding the declaration of a major incident is completely untrue – it is always for individual health boards to decide for themselves if such a step is required.
“We are aware of the current pressures facing NHS Lanarkshire and these are due to a number of factors including: rising COVID infections, higher A&E attendances, delayed discharge and staffing issues, all of which place extreme pressure on the ambulance service and the wider NHS.
“We have spent £50m on urgent and unscheduled care to help improve A&E performance by offering alternative routes to care.
"A focus of the our winter plan is on social care and actions to encourage integration authorities to speed up discharges from hospital.”
Another female patient who was attending the hospital for an appointment also noticed the number of ambulances waiting outside was in double-figures.
She said: “Today I counted 11 ambulances lined up, waiting at Wishaw General as I was there for an appointment.
“The NHS is totally on its knees. Frontline, on the ‘shop floor’ staff need a fair pay rise and a huge recruitment drive is required too.”
Last week nurses and other health workers held a rally outside the hospital. Members of UNISON, the largest NHS trade union, have been balloted for strike action.
NHS Lanarkshire cited “increasing pressure” on services and urged people only to attend A&E if their condition is life threatening.
Judith Park, director of acute services at NHS Lanarkshire, said: “All three of our hospitals are currently operating well above normal capacity which is having a significant impact on service provision and waiting times at our accident and emergency departments.
“We are working closely with the Scottish Ambulance Service to respond to demand and this includes diverting patients before they arrive at a particular site when it is facing high demand.
“Currently ambulances are waiting a significant number of hours at our sites before being able to transfer patients to the care of our staff and this is having an effect not only on the patients waiting at our A&Es but those patients waiting elsewhere for an ambulance.
“By diverting a small number of patients to other Board areas this will allow our staff to triage those patients currently waiting to be seen and get them assessed and either admitted or discharged following treatment.
“Across our acute sites pressures have continued to increase due to a number of factors including Covid infections, rising A&E attendances, and staffing pressures.
“All our A&E departments remain open but we are urging everyone intending to turn up that, unless their condition is life-threatening, to consider the alternatives.
"You can call NHS 24 on 111 day or night, where you will be directed to the right NHS service. If you just need health care advice, then please use the NHS Inform website.”
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