A Lanarkshire councillor who helped save her local A&E has spoken out about her “terrifying” 10-hour wait for treatment at the hospital.
Airdrie North independent representative Sophia Coyle said her experience at Monklands Hospital after complaining of chest pain was so bad she would not go back if she fell ill again.
The mum-of-three also demanded the SNP-led Government get a grip on soaring waiting times.
She said: “You can’t just sit back and put blinkers on and say there’s a crisis. The health service is a shambles just now, but through no fault of the staff.”
Councillor Coyle, 46, was a long-standing SNP councillor in Airdrie who quit the party this year to sit as an independent.
One of her first campaigns in politics was protecting the accident and emergency service at Monklands, but she has now sounded the alarm about the state of the hospital she helped stop from being downgraded.
A diabetic and asthmatic, Councillor Coyle said she contacted the out-of-hours service earlier this month over tightness in her chest and breathlessness.
She said it took about an hour to speak to an NHS professional, who said she should go to Monklands A&E.
The councillor said Monklands was “absolutely full” and claimed patients referred by GPs were waiting for up to 16 hours
She added: “I was trying not to panic in a waiting room full of people. I felt as if it was getting worse.
“You’re seeing people flooding through the doors and you’re obviously worrying about whether it will be too late without you getting through the doors to see a doctor.
“You see patients coming in from Wishaw because Wishaw is full. And then we had transfers coming in from Forth Valley.
“If it’s a nebuliser you need, for asthma, you need to get on medication pretty quickly.”
She also said wearing a face mask when she was struggling for breath was “uncomfortable” and “terrifying”.
Councillor Coyle said she arrived at the hospital at about 7pm and only got seen around 10 hours later.
She said of the SNP: “It’s a wake-up call. They need to pay staff better, especially when people are leaving to agencies and getting more money.
“Why are there 16 hours-plus waiting times? It’s not sustainable at all.
Councillor Coyle said she’d stay at home if the symptoms return.
The Scottish Government has a target of dealing with 95 per cent of patients within four hours but the NHS is nowhere near complying.
Public Health Scotland data revealed only 65.3 per cent of emergency department attendees were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours in the week up to October 16.
Humza Yousaf - branded the worst health secretary of the devolution era by Labour - said last weekend it could take five years for the NHS to recover.
Dr Iain Kennedy of the BMA in Scotland also said the NHS is in “a perilous situation” amid a staffing and funding crisis.
Judith Park, NHS Lanarkshire director of acute services, said: “All three of our hospitals are currently operating well above normal capacity, which is having a significant impact on service provision and waiting times at our emergency departments.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson cited “a number of factors including rising COVID infections, higher A&E attendances, delayed discharge and staffing issues, all of which add to the extreme pressure on the emergency department.
They added: “Our £50 million Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative looks to drive down A&E waits by offering alternatives to hospital.”
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