A GREENOCK mum who was injured in a car crash says it’s an outrage that her friend was forced to take her to hospital after waiting an HOUR for an ambulance.

Gail Conley was left trapped in great pain in her car after a crash in the Bow Road area on July 19 but had no paramedic help.

The 28-year-old, whose six-year-old daughter Mirryn was in the back seat of the car, said it was left to her friend Nicolle Cameron — with the help of firefighters — to get her to Inverclyde Royal, where she was treated for a painful burn to her arm which will leave her scarred for life.

She is also still suffering from the effects of whiplash.

Gail said: “It’s pretty bad that an ambulance didn’t turn up after an hour.

“Supposedly there were none in the area.

“It’s lucky I was not more seriously injured.

“I just hope it doesn’t happen to someone else.”

Her friend Nicolle added: “I got the scene at about 6.55pm and by 7.50pm there was still no sign of an ambulance.

“I couldn’t believe it as it was a really bad crash — her car was a write-off.”

Gail said that it was an extremely distressing situation for herself and her daughter.

She said: “I got such a fright when the accident happened.

“My body went into shock.

“My daughter was in the back of the car and luckily she was okay.

“My leg had seized on the pedal and the airbag had burned my arm, then I had to sit there waiting for an ambulance.

“A man called Colin Macdonald was first on the scene and he sat there trying to calm me down.

“He was a big help.

“The firemen had to take me out of my car and put me in Nicolle’s car.

“She then had to take me to hospital and the firefighters followed us up.”

Passer-by Colin said he was shocked at the hour long delay for paramedics to reach the scene of the smash Gail was involved in.

He said: “It was a horrible situation.

“She needed pain relief and I was reassuring her and trying to keep her calm.

“After about an hour she was removed from the damaged car and put into a private vehicle to be taken to the IRH.

“Where was the ambulance?”

The Tele has reported on a number of cases this year where there have been delays in ambulances arriving at 999 calls in Inverclyde.

Veteran health campaigner Councillor Ciano Rebecchi says the situation is completely unacceptable.

He now intends to raise the issue with the health and social care committee.

Cllr Rebecchi said: “To wait an hour for an ambulance is wrong.

“I don’t blame the ambulance drivers as they are under pressure but something needs to be done to improve the service and make it better.

“The NHS management need to urgently look at how they manage the service and how they can make it better for the whole area.”

The Tele asked the Scottish Ambulance Service to explain what happened on the day of the crash.

They admitted that it took so long for them to arrive on the scene that the patient had by this time been whisked away to hospital.

In a statement, a spokesman said their local crews were busy attending other patients at the time.

He said: “We received a call at 6.54pm on Wednesday 19 July to attend an incident on Tasker Street.

“Every call is prioritised according to the clinical need of the patient to ensure the most appropriate resource is sent.

“At the time of this call, our local crews were already attending to patients with immediately life-threatening conditions.

“We dispatched the nearest available ambulance while one of our clinical advisors attempted to contact the 999 caller to ensure there had been no change in the patient’s condition.

“Once the ambulance arrived there were no patients at the scene.

“We are sorry to hear about the patient’s concerns and would encourage her to contact our patient experience team to enable us to discuss these in more detail to see if there is anything we can do to further improve the service.”