Critically ill patients in Aberdeenshire waiting almost five times as long for ambulances than those in Aberdeen

The most critically ill patients in Aberdeenshire are waiting almost five times as long for ambulances than those in Aberdeen, new figures have revealed.

“Code purple” patients in Macduff and Turriff are waiting an average of 24 and 23 minutes respectively for an ambulance to reach them, three times longer than the national service target time of just eight minutes.

These are people in a life-threatening condition and are identified as having a 10% or more chance of having a cardiac arrest.

The waiting time for Macduff has doubled in the last year, when patients in a critical condition waited 12 minutes in 2024.

In nearby Turriff, 10 miles away, the ambulance service reached purple category patients in 23 minutes.

This is almost five times the response time of 5 minutes in Aberdeen, and more than twice the average wait of 9 minutes in Inverurie and Huntly.

Scottish Conservative MP for Gordon and Buchan, Harriet Cross, said: “These figures are a shocking reflection of the scale of the crisis facing the Scottish Ambulance Service and highlight a deeply concerning trend for rural patients in Aberdeenshire.

“It is completely unacceptable that patients fighting for their lives can’t count on getting an ambulance in their hour of need.

“The closure of Turriff’s MIU and the reduced hours of others, as well as ambulances being backed up outside Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, has also exacerbated this serious problem.

“Lives are being needlessly lost or endangered because the Scottish Government has failed to get on top of a crisis which has been worsening for years.

“At a time when ambulance staff morale is at an all-time low, John Swinney must urgently address this worsening situation before more lives are lost.”