Shocking reality of life on paramedic frontline
GREATER MANCHESTER AMBULANCE STAFF SPEAK OF HUNDREDS OF EMERGENCIES, LACK OF AMBULANCES AVAILABLE AND 12-HOUR WAITS TO SEE A DOCTOR
HUNDREDS of emergencies without an ambulance available, 12-hour waits for patients needing a doctor and ‘pinching’ vital oxygen supplies to save the lives of critically ill people left outside A&E.
These are just some of the conditions one North West Ambulance Service paramedic says she is having to put up with as the region’s health service spirals ‘into chaos.’
For months, pressure has been building in Greater Manchester.
Ambulances have lined up outside A&E as emergency calls spike, the difficulty of getting a doctor’s appointment has seen abuse directed at GPs, Covid patients on the rise once again.
The region is being hit by a perfect storm: coronavirus, seasonal respiratory illnesses, medical complaints that have waited entire lockdowns to be dealt with, plus a huge upturn in the number of people falling sick as we say goodbye to social distancing and mask wearing.
Hospital beds and A&E departments are both so full that there is nowhere to deliver patients, say paramedics who often find themselves as the first point of contact for an ‘unprecedented’ volume of emergency calls. The system is creaking. And after more than 18 months warring with a pandemic, there is simply no end in sight.
Instead, one frontline worker says it’s ‘horrific, and it’s getting worse.’
She says she is ‘terrified’ about the prospect of the service being so stretched in just October – with an entire winter ahead.
“As we currently sit and speak, there are 183 emergencies outstanding without an ambulance in Greater Manchester,” she tells the M.E.N. “Before it became as chaotic as it is now, there used to be around 40 jobs waiting.
“You know it’s going to be horrendous from the minute you walk through the door. You just feel deflated.
“You hear that [number of emergencies waiting for an ambulance] and you think, ‘I don’t really know what to do.’
“The oldest job I went to on Wednesday (October 20) was 18-and-a-half hours old. It was an elderly female who had a fall, and was believed to have a broken ankle.
“She couldn’t walk, she couldn’t get herself to hospital, very elderly. She had been assisted into a chair by one of her neighbours and she had been left there, overnight, waiting for an ambulance. If that was my grandma I’d be absolutely heartbroken.”
The Royal Oldham, The Royal Bolton
Hospital, Fairfield General and Wythenshawe Hospital have been among the hospitals most visibly struggling, according to the paramedic, who wishes to remain anonymous.
“On top of the phenomenal call volume, we’re now experiencing hospital delays,” she claims. “Royal Oldham, in particular, is bad. They are holding crews for 10 hours at a time.
“The Royal Bolton is really, really struggling. The Royal Oldham and Fairfield, they’re absolutely terrible.”
Patients are left waiting for hours in ambulances parked outside hospitals, sometimes being treated in the vehicles themselves. Patients, the paramedic says, that are gravely ill.
“They don’t even let us into the hospital with our patients, we’re expected to keep them in the back of the ambulance,” says the paramedic.
“The staff come out, they might do bloods on the back of the ambulance, a doctor might come out and assess them on the back of the ambulance. So, the bed status is the biggest thing that we hear about, but we also know that because hospitals are struggling with staff shortages, [the hospitals are] basically using the ambulances and the crews as an extension of their department.
“I took a smoke inhalation [patient] down to Royal Oldham, they waited under the canopy for six-and-a-half hours, outside. He was on oxygen throughout, we were basically pinching oxygen cylinders off each other’s vehicles to keep him oxygenated. “When we say it’s bad, it’s bad.” This paramedic is ‘scared’ for her patients. “There’s no resolution coming forward for what we’re going to do about this. There doesn’t seem to be any answers, it’s a case of keeping supporting each other and making sure your colleagues are OK.”
Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership responded to the paramedic’s claims – a body which represents all the major players in the health and wellbeing of people in Greater Manchester. It says the NHS in the region is facing an ‘exceptionally difficult period’ amid a myriad of pressures – and that
hospitals are ‘working to increase beds,’ namely through national winter access funding.
Sarah Price, interim chief officer of the partnership, said: “Patient safety will always be our highest priority. This means the ambulance service and emergency departments (A&E) will treat the sickest patients first and others may face a longer wait.
“Reducing waiting times is a priority and our plans to improve this include additional support for 999 calls to increase call handling capacity by trained professionals and support for mental health calls to ensure people can access support from the right person, in the right place.”
A North West Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “Our staff are continuing to work very hard under extreme pressure to ensure that everyone who needs an ambulance gets one. To help us, we are increasing the numbers of ambulances available by utilising some of our Patient Transport Service staff and with the support of private providers.
“We are also taking on additional call handlers and clinicians in our 999 call centres. As always, the public can assist by only calling 999 in life-threatening emergencies, and consider if other options including NHS 111 online, GPs and pharmacies may be more appropriate.”
But, this paramedic has little faith in those at the top, it appears.
“You could put another 300 ambulances on the road and in 10 minutes, they’d be swallowed up. That’s how busy it is,” she says.
“I don’t think they’ve got an answer because I don’t think anybody has ever seen it like this.
“I don’t personally feel like the answer lies within the ambulance service. If the hospitals were better staffed, if there were more wards, maybe it would take some pressure off.”
The ‘burnout’ among ambulance crews is very real, as this paramedic sounds audibly exasperated.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid says pressures on the NHS are not yet ‘unsustainable.’ The paramedic found that notion laughable when she heard it on the news.
“Come and do a shift with us,” she says. “To be quite honest, I don’t feel like they have got a clue what we’re dealing with out here. When the winter pressures hit, I actually don’t know what we’re going to do.”
The Department for Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.