A SON has hit out after his 86-year-old father was left on a hospital trolley for eight hours.

A SON has hit out after his 86-year-old father was left on a hospital trolley for eight hours.

John MacAulay was admitted to Monklands Hospital, Airdrie, suffering chest pains.

Doctors examined him, decided he was fit to be discharged and called an ambulance for the great-grandfather shortly after 4pm.

But Mr MacAulay, from Bellshill, was still waiting to be transported home at midnight, when staff decided to admit him to a ward instead.

Mr MacAulay's son, also John, said he was furious at the way his father had been treated.

The 47-year-old lecturer said: "My dad has serious mobility issues, so my sister and I could not pick him up.

"The hospital had told me at 4pm he was coming home so I went to his house to wait for him.

"When there was no sign of dad at 10pm I went to Monklands to check on him and he was still waiting on a trolley for an ambulance.

"He kept saying "I'm frozen, I'm frozen". Nobody deserves to be treated like that."

Mr MacAulay spoke out after the Evening Times highlighted a similar case last week of another 86-year-old who waited on a trolley for 12 hours at the Southern General Hospital, Glasgow.

Today, in reply to Mr MacAulay's case, a spokesman for NHS Lanarkshire said: "Waiting time guarantees state the majority of patients attending A&E must be seen, treated and discharged or admitted within four hours.

"Where a patient has been discharged and due to clinical reasons requires transport home, then a patient may have to wait until this transport is available.

"Where there is likely to be a lengthy delay in providing transport, a decision is reviewed on a continuing basis.

"Our staff provide the highest quality of care to our patients. We regret any incidence where a patient feels we have failed to maintain this standard."

The Scottish Ambulance Service said the incident happened on one of their busiest days.

A spokesman said: "We received a call after 4pm on what was the Sunday before Christmas, one of the busiest weekends for ambulance demands in the year.

"It meant Mr MacAulay had to be transferred home by emergency ambulance and, given that we must always prioritise our ambulances to those that need them most, that meant on the busiest Sunday of the year we were busy dealing with many more emergencies.

"Mr MacAulay, whom we appreciate was significantly inconvenienced waiting for an ambulance, was in a safe and warm environment in the hospital."

Last Thursday the Evening Times reported the case of John Mulligan, of Penilee, Glasgow, who was taken to the casualty unit at the Southern General after suffering internal bleeding.

The 86-year-old had been checked and cleared to go home around midday - but 12 hours later he was still waiting for an ambulance to take him home.

Mr Mulligan, who has Alzheimer's Disease, was left on a hospital trolley until midnight.

Staff at the Southern General looked after him during his time in casualty, giving him food and fluids and called the ambulance service five times in an attempt to hurry things up.

A consultant was so concerned about the lengthy delay he offered to use his own car to drive the patient home.

Hospital bosses said the length of time the ambulance service took was "unacceptable".

The ambulance service later admitted Mr Mulligan's wait was down to a "breakdown in communications" and apologised to his family.