Tories slammed after winter spike delays NHS inspections
LIVES are being put at risk as the number of 999 calls mean exhausted paramedics have been working 15 hours without a break, it has been claimed.
A paramedic has spoken out about the horrors he says are facing patients and staff in Northern Ireland’s under-pressure health service.
He said morale has been shot to pieces by the crisis.
“Things have been getting really bad for quite a while now, but over Christmas it was a nightmare,” he said.
“There have been occasions over the last couple of weeks where I have been on night duty and I’ve found myself starting to fall asleep behind the wheel.
“I’m shattered, we all are. Morale isn’t at rock bottom, it’s non-existent.
“I wanted to be a paramedic from when I was 11 but I am genuinely thinking of giving it up.
“I can’t do it anymore. If I could find a job that would pay the bills I would leave tomorrow.”
The NHS employee said conditions have been gradually deteriorating but the situation reached crisis point over the Christmas period.
He said: “The days coming up to Christmas, it started to get really busy.
“Our shifts are 12 hours but we’re working up to 16 hours every shift now and we’re lucky if we get a break eight or nine hours in.”
The paramedic said the scenes of chaos he encountered in A&Es over the Christmas period were also the worst he has seen.
He claimed he was told by a member of staff at the emergency department at Antrim Area Hospital that the unit had run out of portable oxygen.
“We had been there for hours waiting to hand over our patient,” he continued.
“They had been having breathing difficulties so they had been on oxygen and we were close to running out.
“I went looking for some and was told there was none left in the A&E. They only had the oxygen points in the unit and they were looking to bring portable tanks down from the wards. HEALTH officials have “paused” some routine inspections of services this month due to the severe winter pressures on the NHS.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) announced that inspections planned for NHS trusts and GP services rated “good” or “outstanding” would be rescheduled.
A normal inspection regime will resume in February, the watchdog said.
“The entire health and social care system is at full stretch — now an increase in respiratory illness and flu has further intensified this pressure,” said Sir David Behan, chief executive of the CQC.
“To support the system as much as possible, we are rescheduling some routine inspections of services.” He said this There were other crews waiting with their patients too and they were starting to run out.
“If we had run out completely we would have had to take our patient on their stretcher over to one of the oxygen points where another patient already was.”
Rescheduling: Sir David Behan
is “to allow frontline staff and leaders to focus on continuing to ensure that people receive safe, high-quality care during this period of increased demand”.
Sir David added: “However, inspections scheduled in response to concerns about quality or safety will go ahead as planned.” Brian McNeill, director of operations for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, said he was aware that due to the volume of calls over Christmas, many staff worked shifts of up to 15 hours and some went without a meal break. He paid tribute to
Last week, health officials estimated that as many as 55,000 routine operations could be deferred during January as the NHS in England focuses on patients with the most pressing needs. NHS England urged hospitals to postpone pre-planned operations and routine outpatient appointments until the end of the month.
Labour’s shadow health minister Justin Madders criticised the inspection delays. He said: “Another day, another example of Tory failure to suitably prepare our NHS for the predictable winter spike in demand.
“This incredibly serious decision must act as a wake-up call to a Government which remains in denial over the worst winter crisis on record.
“Gaining a full picture of winter pressures is critically important and the CQC’s decision leaves a serious deficit of quality regulation.”