A passer-by who came to the aid of motorists involved in a two car crash has slammed the 30-minute response time by paramedics and police.

John McCann provided first aid and reassurance to the occupants of the cars in the aftermath of a collision on Bearsden Road, in Bearsden, while he waited for the emergency services to arrive.

Ambulance staff have a national target to respond to 999 calls by eight minutes.

Mr McCann says he called shortly after arriving at the scene at around 2pm on Tuesday and that a woman had complained about chest pains. He made a second emergency call around 20 minutes later after her symptoms appeared to be worsening and she seemed disorientated.

He claims the 999 operator was forced to try at least three different numbers to connect to the ambulance service because the line was engaged and repeatedly apologised to him about the delay.

No one is thought to have been seriously injured in the crash.

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Mr McCann, who is an advocacy worker, says police arrived at around 2.30pm, a paramedic a couple of minutes after that and then the ambulance a short time later. Another driver had stopped to assist him by that time.

Glasgow Times:

The Scottish Ambulance Service said it was experiencing a "high volume of calls" at the time of the accident but insisted it had correctly triaged the call, describing it as "non life-threatening."

Mr McCann, who lives in Maryhill and is a former Evening Times journalist, says a woman was receiving treatment in the ambulance when he left the scene and blamed the response time on, “public services being cut to the bone.”

He claims one police officer told him: “It’s the cuts. We just don’t have enough bodies to do the job.”

He said: “To be clear, the problem is not with the emergency workers who responded. They were fantastic.

“But why were cops and paramedics prevented from getting to the scene - less than 10 minutes’ drive from no less than two police stations and who-knows-how-many ambulance stances?

“In the middle of the afternoon. In Bearsden, on a route that conveys the relatively well-off people of Bearsden and Milngavie to and from Scotland’s biggest city.

“And why was a 999 Operator forced to try three different numbers (and take more than three minutes) to connect the ambulance service to me.

“ I lost count of the times she was forced to say, apologetically, “I’ll try another number...” as the wait got longer and longer.

“The Scottish Ambulance Service line is engaged? At 2pm in the afternoon?

“I’m hugely relieved that nobody was seriously injured despite the significant impact of the collision.

“The police arrived just two minutes before the paramedic.

“I’m glad that I was able to help, it was more a matter of keeping people safe and engaged, during the interminable wait for someone - anyone - to arrive on the scene.

“Huge thanks go to the off-duty cop who stopped to help.

“Mostly, I’m raging that it took so damn long to get a response to an emergency that could, so easily, have got so much worse. This is public services cut to the bone.”

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Labour's Health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said: "Our emergency workers are incredible but services are under-resourced and struggling to cope.

"The Scottish Ambulance Service works hard to prioritise calls but we are seeing too many examples of long waiting times."

"Scottish Labour has been working closely with trade unions who tell us ambulance staff are under enormous pressure.

"SNP Ministers have been warned repeatedly and must act before things get any worse.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “We were experiencing a high volume of calls from sick patients at the time this call came through.

"We correctly triaged it as non-life-threatening and on arrival of the ambulance no patients were taken to hospital.”

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Police received report of a two-vehicle collision on Milngavie Road in Bearsden around 2.05pm on Tuesday, 5 November, 2019.

"The call was assessed and given an appropriate response grading, and officers were dispatched to attend. Neither driver sustained any injuries.

"Their details were exchanged and no further police action is required."