Man, 87, waits seven hours for ambulance on garden centre floor

A great-grandfather who broke his leg in a fall spent seven hours lying on the floor of a garden centre while waiting for an ambulance.

James Craig, 87, was waiting so long for emergency help that the nursery in North Lanarkshire had to stay open well past its 17:00 closing time.

His granddaughter Mariann Whitson said she had lost faith in the ambulance service as a result of their experience.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has apologised to Mr Craig and said it was under "significant pressure" on the day he fell.

Mr Craig, from Coatbridge, spent several weeks in hospital after the incident and had to have a hip replacement, but he is now at home recovering.

The incident comes after several years of ambulance waiting times increasing throughout Scotland.

In September, First Minister John Swinney apologised to a young footballer who had to wait five hours for an ambulance after breaking her leg.

And last month, news that Queen's Park footballer Charles Fox waited nearly 10 hours for ambulance with a dislocated knee prompted an apology from Health Secretary Neil Gray.

Ms Whitson shared her family's story after contacting the BBC through Your Voice, Your BBC News.

She said her grandfather became "as pale as a ghost" as the wait grew longer.

He fell at Craigend Nursery and Coffee Shop in Cumbernauld at about midday on 22 October, having been visiting with his daughter Marie.

His family were initially told an ambulance should be there within two hours as he was considered a top priority.

In the meantime, visitors to the garden centre had to walk around him as he lay on the floor.

Ms Whitson, her husband, her father and her brother had all arrived at Craigend at this point to try and help.

"His leg had swollen up so badly and as soon as you touched it he just screamed in pain," said Ms Whitson.

"After two hours we were told all the ambulances had been re-routed to Glasgow and none were available."

She added: "Eventually a paramedic on the phone asked if we could try lifting him up and getting him into a car.

"That's against any health and safety training I've ever had, but they insisted it was the best way to get him there.

"As soon as we touched him he was screaming and crying with the pain, so we couldn't do that."

She said she felt frustrated and helpless.

"If an 87-year-old man was being left like this, what hope would anyone else have?"

Another idea was to try and find something that could work as a makeshift stretcher.

That led to what Ms Whitson described as a dark comedy, of family members looking around the centre to see if anything could work.

In the meantime her grandfather's pain levels continued to worsen.

A doctor later arrived and was able to give Mr Craig morphine to ease the pain, but then had to leave.

Ms Whitson added: "The garden centre was supposed to close but had to stay open as he was still there.

"After the morphine was given, the doctor said just to monitor him and phone again if he got any worse."

She said staff at the garden centre had done everything possible to help her grandfather - but she had lost faith in the NHS.

"I always thought of ambulances as being an urgent medical resource, but I now view them as unreliable - and my faith that they will be here when needed is gone," Ms Whitson added.

Eventually an ambulance arrived from Stirling, which Ms Whitson estimated at about 20:30, but the Scottish Ambulance Service say was about 90 minutes earlier.

Mr Craig was then taken to Wishaw General Hospital, and doctors eventually saw him in the early hours of the following day. He was found to have broken his leg and hurt his hip.

Ms Whitson said he was delirious for days afterwards, and had to be tested for dementia. Doctors found no evidence of that, and decided it was simply shock from the fall.

Mr Craig should have been released from hospital a few weeks ago, but his release was delayed due to problems in getting a full care package.

His granddaughter said the family were now simply relieved he was home for Christmas.

The Scottish Ambulance Service categorizes call outs into four incident types.

Purple is for the most critically ill patients (e.g a cardiac arrest), and red is for those at high risk of acute deterioration.

These are followed by amber (for those likely needing diagnosis and transport) and yellow (low likelihood of needing life-saving intervention).

It is not known what category Mr Craig's call out fell under.

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson said: "We would like to apologise to Mr Craig for the delay in the ambulance response and for any distress caused.

"Our service was under significant pressure on 22 October due to sustained and significant pressures at hospitals in the Lanarkshire area, including delays of up to five hours.

"We have been working closely with NHS Lanarkshire to support the longest waiting patients but understand the distress to patients caused. These waits also prevent our crews from getting back out on the road to treat other patients.

"At an appropriate time, we would urge the family or patient to contact our patient experience team so we can discuss their case."

NHS Lanarkshire said the case was a matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service.