A Scots husband last night told of the “war zone” which greeted him as his wife finally got into a hospital after a 12-hour-wait.
Edward Haggerty, 52, revealed his distress at witnessing queues of people lined up in corridors on trolleys and wheelchairs waiting for beds or to be seen.
Wife Denise, 56, had fallen ill at their Dumbarton home with palpitations, breathlessness and vomiting.
She went to see her GP in Dumbarton Health Centre at 12.30pm and the doctor called an ambulance.
But Edward said: “The ambulance didn’t turn up and the surgery had to stay open late until it arrived.
“My wife felt with the doctor calling the ambulance it would arrive quite quickly.
“I work at the children’s hospice Robin House and I got a phone call from Denise telling me what was happening.
“I left there about 1.45pm but thought I wouldn’t make it back to Dumbarton before the ambulance arrived so I drove straight to Paisley.
“I was at the hospital before 3pm but there was no sign of Denise.
“I know the service has been under a bit of strain so thought the ambulance would be there by 4pm but that time passed and so did 5pm.
“She was eventually picked up from the surgery at 7.10pm and arrived at the hospital around 7.45pm.”
But that was not the end of the wait for Denise as she faced further delays at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.
Edward said: “The ambulance pulled up and Denise happened to notice me outside.
"I was talking to her through the ambulance door but the paramedic said I could come in because it would be a few hours before we got into A&E.”
It was almost 12.45am before she made it inside the hospital.
Edward said: “She was seen about 20 minutes later but then she was put back in the hallway on a chair because someone else needed the bed.
“People were lined up in corridors on trollies and wheelchairs. It really upset me. If I didn’t know where I was I would have thought I was in a war zone. It was so shocking.
“There was nowhere else for people to go, there were at least 15-20 patients on trollies and in wheelchairs.
“I am a great believer in the NHS and I know the staff do a brilliant job. They must be working under so much pressure and I know they wouldn’t leave people in corridors deliberately. I don’t really think you understand it until it happens to you.
“You expect to see this in a Third World country, not Scotland.”
Denise sat in the corridor for an hour before she was taken back through to a cubicle. She was seen by a doctor at 5.30am – 16 hours after her GP first called an ambulance.
Denise was found to have a leaking heart valve which, combined with reflux, had caused her problems that day. Her condition is being monitored but is not considered life threatening.
Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “Unfortunately, their experience is all too common in the NHS today.
“The SNP government and Health Minister Humza Yousaf have been warned time and again, yet they do nothing to ease the pressure. If they don’t take urgent action, people run the risk of dying needlessly.”
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde admitted on July 11 and 12, A&E at the RAH at one point had “70 patients with 29 spaces to see them”.
A spokesman said: “We apologise for the fact that, as is the case across Scotland, patients are having to wait longer at A&E then they would expect.
“Comments that liken the situation at the RAH to a ‘war zone’ are unwarranted and have a serious detrimental effect on our hard-working staff.”
The Scottish Ambulance Service said: “There were delays due to long hospital turnaround times, and, after speaking to the patient and the GP, it was agreed the GP would reassess the response required. We apologise for the delay in reaching the patient.”
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