Elderly patient on floor for 20 hours in ambulance wait

Whistleblower blames use of more care assistants in vehicles

ADEMENTIA patient in his 90s was left lying on the floor of his home without food and water for 20 hours because of a 999 backlog at West Midlands Ambulance Service, a paramedic claims.

And the whistleblower says long hours caused by the 999 delays has left colleagues facing rocketing stress levels, with eight employees allegedly having taken their own lives in the last four years.

The paramedic, who did not wish to be identified, said: “The last two shifts I’ve done I haven’t been to a 999 call that has come in that day. The only jobs we’re going to are from the day before. I’ve never ever known it like this.

“When I signed on recently, there were more than 200 outstanding 999 calls. Normally there might be 20. But we’re so short-staffed and we can’t meet the demand whatsoever. We cannot continue to work 15-17-hour shifts.”

The paramedic claimed a colleague attended the 90-year-old patient, who had been left lying on the floor for 20 hours after his family was told not to move him by 999 operators.

“He was an elderly chap with dementia who’d had a fall and he was laying on the floor,” the paramedic said. “Standard advice that the ambulance service gives to people is ‘don’t give the patient anything to eat or drink’.

“Normally that would be because, in years gone by, we would be there in 20 minutes. I was told the family were so angry – that’s not why we joined the job.

“But the service is not doing anything about it; they just turn round and say, ‘demand, it’s demand’.”

An alleged shortage of qualified drivers within WMAS is a cause of the delays, the paramedic adds.

Normally a paramedic would “double staff ” a vehicle with a trainee, who was fully trained to drive on blue lights after a 14-week course and

Paramedic

four-week driving course, the whistleblower explained.

But the paramedic claims WMAS has introduced more Ambulance Care Assistants (ACA) who are given a more basic training course and are not trained to drive under 999 blue lights.

The paramedic said: “The ACAs are coming out with us in an ambulance uniform, but they can’t drive an ambulance on blue lights or normal conditions.

“The paramedic has to drive there, do all the care, all the paperwork. We can’t drive the person to hospital because if the patient needs paramedic intervention, the person we’re working with (ACA) can’t provide it.

“If the patient needs to be taken to hospital, the paramedic cannot do anything apart from request another crew – so literally they’re sending ambulances to people for nothing.

“This situation has been going on since the start of coronavirus. I’ve not heard of ACAs being used in this way anywhere else in the country.”

The paramedic also claims the service has lost more than 50 staff in the last few weeks.

When I signed on recently, there were more than 200 outstanding 999 calls. Normally there might be 20