‘Patients are dying all the time’: Ambulance service crippled amid NHS crisis

PATIENTS are dying as they wait for ambulances in Scotland’s increasingly stretched NHS, according to new warnings about the state of the service.

Paramedics are spending longer waiting to hand over patients at busy accident and emergency units instead of getting back on the road and responding to new emergencies, and are fielding more calls from people unable to see a GP because of the staffing crisis in surgeries.

A new report reveals the emergency service is becoming slower, while staff sickness is soaring and the GMB union, which represents paramedics, says members are on ‘the brink’ of industrial action over increasing workloads.

The union says it has consistently lobbied the Scottish Government for extra funding, but the service is failing to keep up with increasing demand from a sick and aging population.

A Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) report, Towards 2020, reveals that the ‘turnaround time’ for ambulances from the point of arrival at hospital to departure has risen by almost 9 per cent in a year.

At the troubled £1billion Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, the report found ambulance turnaround times are 12 minutes slower than at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

That has triggered an investigation by the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board to discover the reason for the delay. The GMB says it is due to staffing problems in A&E, leaving paramedics unable to hand patients over as quickly as elsewhere.

Across Scotland, ambulance turnaround times rose from 24 minutes and 29 seconds in January and February, 2016, to 26 minutes and 37 seconds in the same period this year. The report shows the Scottish Ambulance Services hopes to put 200 future paramedics into training in August, but has yet to receive approval.

John Marr, GMB national secretary for the ambulance service, said: ‘We do not have enough resources. We’ve been having this argument with the Scottish Government and Scottish Ambulance Service for some time. Workload has increased tenfold. People call the ambulance service because they can’t get a GP, or because NHS 24 passes them on to us. This is having an impact on staff. They are at breaking point, with 20-minute breaks in 12-hour shifts.’

Paramedics are unlikely to call an all-out strike, but Mr Marr revealed: ‘We have been on the brink of looking at some kinds of industrial action, such as an overtime ban or work to rule.’

Asked if people will people die because of stretched resources, he added ‘It already happens, all the time. Ambulances are not able to get to a house for 40 minutes and by the time they arrive the patient has passed away.’

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘Any increase in turnaround time is incredibly worrying, especially when it’s combined with the increase in staff sick leave and the general problems we have in finding enough staff for our hospitals.’

Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘An efficient ambulance service can literally be the difference between life and death and it is deeply concerning to see turnaround times increasing by around 10 per cent since last year.’

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said that specialist staff were being recruited specifically to improve hospital turnaround times.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government denied that it was failing to provide adequate funding, saying: ‘Despite increasing demand, our crews are saving the lives of more patients than ever before.

‘We have increased the SAS budget for 2017/18 by £3.4 million, protecting it in real terms and supporting progress towards our commitment for 1,000 more trained paramedics over the next five years.’