"Deep concern and disappointment"

At 05:00am on a Monday my mother called 999 to request an ambulance when her partner experienced severe abdominal pain, explaining to the call handler that he was crawling on the floor and writhing in agony which was very out of character. Mum explained that her partner was in too much pain to adequately describe the precise location of the pain whilst the call handler repeatedly insist she establish whether it was above or below the navel. Mum was advised that request for ambulance assistance was denied and to call their GP at 9am (hours later) which she did only to be told to immediately proceed to A&E (Mum has no car and suffers cancer and osteoporosis) but somehow she managed. 

My stepdad had evidently managed to hold on just long enough to get to A&E as he collapsed immediately on arrival. Within a few hours we were told he would be unlikely to survive 48 hours after diagnosis of a twisted bowel and underwent emergency surgery which we were warned he would be unlikely to survive.  He was admitted to ICU with a survival likelihood less than 50%.

This was evidently a severe, critical and life threatening emergency yet my parents were left waiting for hours for their GP to open whilst my stepdad experienced horrific pain and my mum the anxiety of coping with watching him in horrific pain with no way of alleviating it or assisting him. I believe that the ambulance service were incompetent and made a terrible situation worse, compromised my stepdad's chances of survival (he was hours away from possible death) and distressed my parents. I have requested a full explanation of why an ambulance response was determined unwarranted, a full review of the recorded call and significant assurances that lessons will be learned from this. I cannot comprehend how anyone could have failed to conceive the situation as the grave emergency it was. I cannot fathom what Scottish Ambulance Service deem to be an emergency if this did not meet that criteria. I actually feel anxious when I think of my parents being in that situation, both scared and trying to impress how much they needed help only to be brushed off. I was 500 miles away in Dorset at the time and my anxiety accepting what they relayed to me was horrific as I urgently tried to arrange flights to Glasgow.

Every time I imagine what the two of them must have suffered I feel nauseous and cannot imagine how recounting the events impacts them. I feel so disappointed in the NHS; a service I always believed would be there when needed for situations like this.

No matter what I try to focus my attention on at the awful time, my anger at how my parents were treated and let down is consuming me and reduces me to tears.

I keep thinking of other people who could potentially be put in that situation and the dire consequences and stress it could have on them and their families. 

I really need to understand how this happened to move forward. Has there been human error, systems error or was there a communications breakdown? My mum is regularly relaying the content of the 999 call to me and I am at a loss to understand which part failed to serve as a red flag that this was a genuine and urgent emergency. It is so deeply concerning and disappointing.