Bringing in the army to help ease the ambulance crisis in Scotland will be of "little or no help", a union boss has said.
Jamie Mcnamee, Unite Converner for the Scottish Ambulance Service, said that around 90 military personell are expected to be drafted in to help ease pressure on emergency medical responders.
There have been warnings that the over-stretched service is at breaking point, with stories of patients with serious health issues waiting hours for an ambulance - including one of a man who died after a 40-hour wait.
But Mr McNamee said that he understands that military staff will not be clinically trained and will not take the place of regular ambulance crews.
READ MORE: Military support for ambulance service called in amid 'unacceptable' waiting times
Instead, they will be used to ferry people to and from hospital and help free up staff for emergency duties.
Unite says too many patients are witing to be discharged
Mr McNamee told BBC Scotland: "The assistance being provided is one where they will be driving vehicles without the ability to emergency respond and nor will they have any clinical skills to bring to the organisation.
"Whilst we welcome them onboard, they will be of little or no help to the Scottish Ambulance Service in their emergency care provision."
"I would imagine they will work with colleagues in the non-emergency service to help free-up capacity for the health boards in the shape of discharges from wards and perhaps getting people home from casualty departments who otherwise wouldn't be able to make it on their own."
READ MORE: Scots should ‘think twice’ before calling for ambulance
The Unite official said that problems were being caused by a lack of beds in the system, meaning ambulances could not respond to emergencies because they could not discharge patents from their care at Accident and Emergency departments until space was freed up.
He said that action was needed at a health board level to open up facilities where people could be treated, removing the bottleneck in the system.
Health Secretary Humza Yusaf is due to make a statement to Holyrood on the pressures the ambulance service is facing on this afternoon.
Health Secretary Humza Yusaf
Mr McNamee said: "Until we get the finer details from the announment today, that's the facts as we know them.
"I wouldn't imagine it will have a significant impact. What we need is real action from the government, from the large health boards to open up any facilities that re moth-balled or aren't at full capacity to improve the bed situation and allow or colleagues to hand over to experienced clinicians and to keep the valuable mobile resources responding to the commmunities as they require them."
"This is as bad as it's been, in my experience. We're creeping towards the winter and I fear for the winter unless there is major, significant changes announced by the government this afternoon."
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