BED-blocking and overstretched nurses in Scottish hospitals is leading to major delays for ambulance crews making emergency calls, it has been claimed.
Paramedics transferring patients and at bust accident and emergency departments are sometimes left waiting up to two hours before they can move on to their next call-out.
Unite union national convenor, paramedic Jamie McNamee, said that the target turnaround time as 12-15 minutes, but that the average waiting time was now half an hour.
However, he added that the union had examples of ambulances waiting around for far longer than that, amid scenes of hospital corridors jammed with trolleys because there is nowhere to put patients.
He said: "It is a concern because it deprives the public of valuable resources for excessive periods of time. Historically the target for hospital turnaround times in busy urban environments would be 12-15 minutes.
"We're now looking at an average time in excess of 30 minutes. But there are examples of ambulances sitting at casualty departments for excessive periods of time up to two hours.
"There is no where for the end disposal for the casualty patient. There's no beds available.
He added: "There's a whole system problem with regards to patient flow-through. What I can say is that we do not have enough capacity within our system to meet the demands that are placed upon us, which are increasing week in week."
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Mr McNamee said that morale in the Scottish Ambulance Service is at "rock bottom" because of excessive demands placed on staff.
He spoke out after the BBC revealed the results of an internal staff survey which suggested work pressure had affected the health of more than half of the respondents.
Nearly two in five of ambulance services employees responded to the survey, which was carried out at the start of the year.
The vast majority said they "strongly agreed" morale was low - with more than one in four saying they had considered leaving because of pressure at work.
Mr MCNamee added: "I would suggest if you took a camera up to the casualty department at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary or at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at any day of the week, you'll see a huge array of ambulance vehicles sitting there at any one time," he said.
"Inside the hospital it would not be unknown to have a corridor full of ambulance trolleys and patients on these trolleys waiting to get an appropriate clinical handover."
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A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said the figures quoted were from a "historic survey", with the latest results being published in the new year.
"We recognise that whilst our staff do a tremendous job caring for patients and saving lives each day, working for the ambulance service can be stressful at times given the situations they can face each day.
"We take the health and wellbeing of our staff very seriously and we have a wide range of support available including counselling support, occupational health services and other procedures in place to ensure any wider issues raised are dealt with."
The service said turnaround times could be affected by a wide range of factors, including high call volumes; people self-presenting at accident and emergency departments; people in care settings requiring hospital treatment; and the time taken to clean vehicles.
"We recognise that there are pressures on hospitals during peak periods and we are continuing to work closely with health boards to improve turnaround times across Scotland," said the spokesman.
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