Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Ambulance queues are leading to deaths – claim
AN ambulance worker says “worse than ever” queues outside hospitals across the South West are “without doubt” leading to deaths.
The emergency worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said ambulances waiting for two hours outside hospitals have become normal in recent weeks.
The delays in handing patients into the care of hospitals are “worse than ever”, they added.
On Wednesday, the worker witnessed a queue of 24 ambulances outside the Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath, they claimed.
They said: “If we queue for two hours we see that as a win. I was there on Wednesday with 24 ambulances queuing.
“Without doubt people are dying because we can’t get to them because we’re stuck at hospital.”
With ambulances unable to get to call-outs, people facing medical emergencies are suffering, the worker said. They added hospitals appeared to be “overwhelmed” at the moment.
“It is a perfect storm,” they said. “111 are sending ambulances to jobs that do not need ambulances, GPs are just not going out to people and their receptionists just tell people to ring 999 and, of course, the hospitals are overwhelmed so we can’t get in.
“All of that adds up to the ambulance service failing and the result of that is that people are dying.”
A&E departments are meant to accept patients from the South Western Ambulance Service within 15 minutes. When this doesn’t happen, there are handover delays.
These have increased significantly over the past year. Officials say problems in patient flow throughout the health and social care system are to blame.
A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) said:
People are dying because we can’t get to them because we’re stuck at hospital AMBULANCE WORKER
“Due to the health and social care system being under sustained pressure, patients are having to wait longer for an ambulance than they would expect. There are a number of reasons for these delays, including the time it can take to hand over patients to emergency departments.
“We are working with our partners to ensure our crews can get back out on the road as quickly as possible, to respond to other patients.
“We would encourage people who have family and friends who are medically fit to leave hospital to support them where they are able to do so, and as ever, if you need emergency care please call 999 or use 111 online for other medical support.”
A spokesperson for the RUH said: “In recent months the RUH, like other hospitals across the country, has been affected by the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on our capacity and staffing levels.
“We have also experienced challenges discharging patients who require further support in the community from social or community care providers.
“This has impacted on our ability to offload ambulances as quickly as we want. To overcome this, we are working closely with partners in the community to support patients to return home as soon as they are well enough to leave us, freeing up hospital beds for those who need them most.
“For example, in partnership with Bath and North East Somerset Council, we have launched our own home care agency, United Care Bath, to increase the availability of home care within the community and help move patients into the right place for their ongoing care needs. As a result of some of these actions we have seen our handover delays reduce recently.
“Reducing delays for ambulance crews remains a top priority for us and whilst making progress in this area, we acknowledge there is still more to do.
“Our local community can help us by working with our teams to support relatives who are well enough to be discharged from hospital to get home as soon as possible.”
But ambulance delays are not just a problem in Bath and the South West. There are issues across the UK.
The BBC reported this week that doctors have warned that patients are being put in danger by long waits for ambulances. It spoke to patients affected in Hertfordshire, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), which represents services across the whole UK, says handover delays cut the number of hours crews could operate by “up to one-third” in some areas in March.
“The potential harm... could be impacting thousands of patients every month, with obvious knock-on effects on the morale and wellbeing of staff,” managing director Martin Flaherty told the BBC.
The Government’s Department of Health and Social Care said money is being invested to tackle Covid-19 backlogs in the health service and in social care. There are also plans to boost the capacity of the NHS 111 helpline to ensure people only go to A&E when necessary.