My five-hour wait in the back of ambulance with suspected heart attack

Patient feared having cardiac arrest in line of emergency vehicles outside hospital's A&E

- VIVIENNE AITKEN

A WOMAN suffering a suspected heart attack told last night how she had to wait for five hours in the back of an ambulance before she was seen by medics.

Roseanna Clarkin, 39, was rushed to Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital after collapsing at home with an almighty pain across my back and chest" and being unable to breathe.

With a history of heart problems, Roseanna feared the worst. The ambulance was at her Dunbartonshire home within five minutes but she could not believe the chaos when she arrived at the hospital last Monday morning.

She said: "We couldn't even get parked near A&E because there were another 16 ambulances waiting there with patients already.

Last night Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: "The NHS in Scotland is on its knees and we aren't even in winter yet.