Small cog can grind A&E system to halt

I WAS reminded recently of the very hard jobs some people do in the most difficult of circumstances.

A relative was rushed to A&E by ambulance after collapsing. I got there as quickly as possible to find, naturally, given the often horrendous delays, she hadn’t even been triaged and was occupying an ambulance trolley awaiting assessment. With her were two very kind paramedics, a nurse and other staff putting her at her ease. But the conditions were terrible – for patients and staff alike.

I’m unfortunately very familiar with emergency rooms over the past few years, and it was no less jam-packed than usual.

I was struck by the utter waste of resources the system obliges. Five ambulances were lined up outside A&E, all with their patients disgorged onto trolleys which couldn’t be returned to them until they had a bed.

That meant valuable paramedics, clearly better served out and about doing their job, stuck in A&E too, often for hours.

Given the ‘scoop and go’ urgency which ambulance personnel so efficiently manage, hanging around waiting to commandeer their trolley again seems utterly unproductive, wasteful and disorganised. Not their fault, obviously, but a system failing to cope.

Everyone says that once you’re admitted to hospital, most things work well; getting that far is another matter.

I’ve seen the constant repetition of a dysfunctional small cog chronically preventing the bigger wheel working properly for years now. Are we to even hope it has a chance of improving?