Whiteford Joins Ambulance Crew in Fact Finding Mission

Issues behind poor performance on response times come to the fore
Dr Eilidh Whiteford today joined ambulance crew from the Fraserburgh station as she shadowed the team on their daytime shift. The fact-finding trip comes after the MP for Banff and Buchan held a range of meetings with senior figures in the Scottish Ambulance Service to discuss concerns about ambulance response times in the north of Aberdeenshire.

It was revealed earlier this summer that paramedics had taken longer than 20 minutes to react to 47 life-threatening incidents in Peterhead in the last year. The figure for Fraserburgh was 36. Dr Whiteford subsequently met with regional bosses of the service to discuss what had gone wrong. Now the SNP politician has carried out her own fact finding mission, joining front-line paramedics and ambulance technicians from Fraserburgh on their daily shift.

Commenting on her experiences, Dr Whiteford said:

"I want to thank the Fraserburgh Ambulance Service staff for sharing their insights with me, and especially Douglas Ewen and Liam Ritchie who took me out with them on their shift. The dedication and professionalism of our ambulance staff is hugely impressive, and the Service is fortunate to have such highly skilled individuals on its front line."

Dr Whiteford added:

"It was a real pleasure to meet the team, spend the day with them, and see for myself some of the challenges they face. I now have a much clearer understanding of the pressures on our ambulance crews, and I intend to feed my findings back to those who manage the Service. I will also continue to press to ensure that the service in north Aberdeenshire is adequately resourced to meet local demand."