‘Overwhelmed’ hospital turns away ambulances
●Sharp rise in Covid cases forces one A&E to temporarily shut its doors
Hospital workers have had to redirect ambulances because of an “overwhelming” number of coronavirus patients amid warnings from unions that healthcare staff are at breaking point as Scotland faces a third wave of Covid-19.
The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow had to send several 999 calls away from the Govan site yesterday as they struggled with the number of Covid patients, according to frontline staff.
Workers at the flagship facility, one of the largest in the UK, told The Scotsman they were worried after staff at the Glasgow hospital stopped taking emergency calls.
Meanwhile the Scottish Ambulance Service and NHS boards across the country have been struggling to cope this week under the pressure of winter illness, ice and snow leading to increased falls, and a surge in Covid cases.
Positive test rates have jumped since the beginning of January, with more than 2,000 new cases reported almost every day, and unions warned NHS staff are bearing the brunt of this increased pressure after nine difficult months.
Graeme Eunson, chairman of the Consultant’s Committee at BMA Scotland, said: “It’s always said that staff morale is at its lowest ever, but I think genuinely we’re entering a really difficult time for the NHS.
“We’ve had to cope with C ovid
through the same restrictions in our day to day lives as everyone else has, at the same time as trying to maintain the high quality health service that we want to deliver.
"We’re getting to the point now where I think staff are just expected to get back up on their feet again, dust themselves off, and go forward into what’s now going to be the third wave of this illness [...] and it's really taking a toll on the staff.”
Dr Eunson said staff are both physically and mentally exhausted.
"I’m hearing really quite harrowing tales from colleagues across the country that at the end of the shift there are tears because they just have nothing left to give,” he said.
"But we keep getting up in the morning, dusting ourselves off and turning up for another shift because that’s what we have to do... but it’s really, really difficult to do that.
"I genuinely think there are a lot of people out there who are probably looking at the last year and the sacrifices they have been making day in day out, and thinking you know what, actually, I can’t give any more, and if I keep giving more it’s going to be to my own detriment.”
Willie Duffy, head of health at Unison Scotland, said: “Staff are working day in day out in highly pressured situations, where they are not getting a minute’s peace, a minute’s respite.
"You have got hospitals overflowing, capacities overflowing… I know we get a lot of this at this time with the winter flu season, but they’re just not getting time to think, it’s constant.”
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine warned that staff in A& E departments are struggling to cop e with increased pressure, as patients face increasing waits across the country.
“With Covid still endemic in hospitals and the community, crowded departments pose an even greater risk,” said Dr John Thomson, Vice President of RCEM in Scotland. Long waits in the Emergency Department are not good for anyone. It compromises the quality of care we offer to our patients; we know it compromises patient safety as it is associated with mortality. It also brings anxiety and stress to clinical staff. The pressures of winter 2020/21 are likely to be the toughest we have ever experienced.”
Last night it was understood the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was "back online".
One member of staff said the hospital was “overwhelmed by covid cases” which led to the diversion.
Another, a senior doctor at the hospital who did not wish to be named, said the hospital had been pushed to capacity by a combination of a ‘normal winter’ health problems and coronavirus.
They added :" The dive rt amounted to one or two ambulances but now back online.”
Yesterday's coronavirus figures showed that 1,384 people were in hospitals across Scotland with recently confirmed coronavirus as the countr y records 2,039 new cases of virus in the previous 24 hours.
A total of 95 people were in intensive care across the country with the virus and 68 deaths have been recorded.
The First Minister announced on Tuesday that 695 out of 2,529 new cases of coronavirus reported yesterday were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been contact for comment but has not yet responded.