Hospital. Facts and figures In year ended 31 March 2020, the service: Responded to 542,213 accident and emergency incidents. Carried out 606,015 non-emergency patient journeys. Flew 3,732 air ambulance missions. Controversy and challenges The Scottish Ambulance Service has not been free from controversy over the years, especially recently: In 1999 it emerged that the Financial Director of the Scottish Ambulance Service had previously been jailed for fraud. In 2017 the ambulance service was criticised for using an ancient fleet of ambulances, with nearly half having over 100,000 miles on them. In 2018 it was revealed that frontline staff had been working "dangerously long hours", with one staff member working a 36 hour long shift. This was described as a national scandal at the time. 2021 saw the Scottish Ambulance Service struggle to staff frontline ambulances; seeking help from firefighters, the military, and non-medical trained drivers to crew ambulances attending 999 calls. A number of tragic stories emerged highlighting the personal cost of this crisis, including one patient who died after waiting 40 hours for an ambulance, and an elderly man who died on his driveway after waiting four and a half hours for an ambulance. In the same year it was also revealed that a number of senior NHS managers from the ambulance service were running a camper van hire business during work hours, while planning for the COP26 international conference. Research published in 2022 demonstrated that four out of five Scottish paramedics were considering quitting their jobs. It also revealed that 87% of staff do not feel valued by the Scottish Ambulance Service. The same report highlighted a third of staff working shifts lasting 15–20 hours. The same year, a story was published in which a member of the public was asked to perform CPR on their relative, alone in the back of the ambulance without help from the ambulance crew while en route to hospital. In the summer of 2022 it was claimed that an ambulance service senior manager was suspended as a result of requesting that a member of control-room staff leave their post and collect him (and his family) from Glasgow Airport. In 2022 it also came to light that EMRS have been deploying as a “Red Team” for the Scottish Ambulance Service without a Consultant on board. See also Air ambulances in the United Kingdom Ambulance services in the United Kingdom Other Scottish emergency and