‘We smile at work then we go home break down because no matter how breaks you miss or how long you stay your shift finishes, you can’t get it all
NURSES in Wales say the crisis in the Welsh NHS this winter is the worst they have ever seen.
People working in hospitals in South Wales have described seeing nurses in tears and say colleagues are at breaking point.
Ambulance staff have described the situation as “catastrophic”, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Wales likened A&E departments to “a battlefield” and a union claims staff are “in despair”.
Lindsay Regan said her husband Jonathan had to wait 33 hours in a wheelchair at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, to be treated, after going there last Tuesday afternoon.
Mrs Regan, from Heath in Cardiff, said: “My husband was sat there in his wheelchair.
“He was left there for 33 hours,” she said.
She said she was told a lack of staff was the reason for the delays: “They said it was because of new year and that the doctors weren’t in to sign patients out and there was a backlog of people waiting.
“They didn’t want him to go home but he told them he was fed up and he would sign himself out.
“They talked him out of it because he had dangerously high blood pressure and he could have a stroke and die.”
Mr Regan was then given medication, while still in his wheelchair, and at around 10pm on January 3 his blood pressure had gone down enough he could go home.
“People should know what’s going on. I’ve been a taxpayer all my life, for what? My husband sat in his wheelchair for 33 hours. It was dreadful. Unless you are critically ill, you will not be attended to.
“The only way my husband would have been treated was if his heart had failed and he had had a heart attack. That’s the saddest part”.
An agency nurse with six years experience working in A&E says it’s the ‘worst he’s ever seen’.
“This is the worst I have ever seen. I have been working in Merthyr all over Christmas and I have seen nurses in tears with lots of patients in corridors and staff not having any breaks on a 12.5-hour shift.
“We are all tired and close to breaking point but no-one seems to care.
“The Government just don’t care and people still come to hospital that don’t need to be there. Nursing homes send people in that don’t need to come in.
“The teams in A&E and the ambulance service are working above and beyond what they should be but so many are at breaking point but scared to go off sick due to pressure about sickness policy.
“A&E and ambulance staff get the blame but there is no where to move patients to. The NHS in Wales is on the verge of imploding on itself.”
A staff nurse working in A&E in South Wales says she has never seen pressure this bad.
“As a nurse you are constantly risk assessing and problem solving but, more and more often, the problems are more complex and the risks are becoming unavoidable.
“All too often you are found in a situation where one patient has been incontinent and needs washing and changing, but they are bariatric and you are physically unable to move and wash them yourself but no-one else is there to help you.
“Another patient is screaming in pain and requires morphine, a controlled drug, which two nurses must sign out and administer - but you can’t find another nurse to counter-sign.
“While this is happening, another patient who is confused and at risk of falls is wandering round the very busy unit.
“Unless you have a spare healthcare assistant to observe this patient, chances are they’re going to come to harm and whilst you are stuck with the first two patients, there’s very little you can do about it.
“On top of this, another patient has collapsed in the waiting room and requires immediate medical care.
“Whilst all this is going on, you are expected to keep up with hourly observations, make teas and coffees for patients, transfer patients for urgent scans (which can take you off the floor for up to 30 minutes) and keep a smile on your face. And we all do.
“We smile at work then we go home and break down because no matter how many breaks you miss or how long you stay after your shift finishes, you can never get it all done.
“It’s physically impossible and the Government has tried to convince the public that it is [possible], leading to higher expectations.
“The way it’s going, patient safety is going to be continuously compromised until more staff, more resources and more facilities become available.
“At the end of the day, when bad things happen despite our best efforts, it’s us the frontline staff who will be struck off and punished, not the government.”
The chief executive of the NHS in Wales, Dr Andrew Goodall, says there has been ‘exceptional demand’.
He said: “It’s been a challenging period for the NHS in Wales. There’s been significant pressures.
“Plans are in place. There are some which are run on a national basis and the real focus is on the local plans from the health boards and ambulance service.
“Nine days ago the position in Wales was that most of Wales was at level one or two with 10 sites reporting green status.
“It shows how quickly it can become a challenge”.
The Welsh Government’s cabinet member for health has apologised for cancelled operations.
Vaughan Gething said: “Of course I am sorry for anyone who has had their planned treatment interrupted by the extraordinary pressures we’re seeing in the emergency system.
“In planning for winter, the health service reduces the level of planned admissions for opera-