Ambulance delay forces police to ferry patients
CONCERNS about ambulance availability have been raised after police took four people to hospital following a late-night accident in which a car overturned.
Extra blankets had to be called for as police and firefighters helped the silver car’s five occupants on the A4118 between Penmaen and Parkmill in Gower.
The Welsh Ambulance Service said it had several crews stuck outside Morriston Hospital at the time.
The accident happened at around midnight on Thursday and is not believed to have involved another vehicle.
It is understood that the three men and two women in the car were able to get themselves out, but that one of the men had broken his wrist.
Reynoldston’s fire crew arrived after the police, who closed the road.
But despite requests for an ambulance, a Gower co-responder team was called for to bring extra medical supplies and blankets.
As time wore on in freezing temperatures, the overturned car’s occupants even had a stint sitting inside the fire engine to keep warm.
It is understood that after 2am, more than two hours after the crash, four of the damaged car’s occupants were driven to Morriston Hospital by police.
Since 2015 the Welsh Ambulance Service (WAS) has graded 999 calls red, amber or green.
Life-threatening red calls should have an ambulance on scene within eight minutes – and statistics are regularly published to keep track of a nationwide 65% target.
Amber calls, such as this one, are for patients who may need treatment at the scene and transferring to a medical facility. There are no time targets for amber calls, as with the less serious green calls.
Gower councillor Richard Lewis said he believed police and fire service time was being wasted when their officers and crews were waiting at crash scenes for an ambulance to turn up.
“I just feel the ambulance service has not been pulling its finger out,” he said. “There should be a better response.”
Mr Lewis said he did not blame ambulance staff.
Welsh Ambulance Service sources have frequently complained that delays in transferring patients to hard-pressed accident and emergency departments are a persistent problem.
In 2016 the service spent just under 60,000 hours – the equivalent of 2,487 days – waiting to transfer patients into hospitals in Wales.
Part of the reason for this is a shortage of ward beds because social care packages take a long time to arrange for elderly patients who are waiting to be discharged.
Just under two months ago a First Cymru bus took a sick woman to Morriston Hospital after six hours of waiting for an ambulance.
Asked about the Gower road accident, Jeff Morris, Welsh Ambulance Service’s operations manager in the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board area, said: “We were called at approximately 12.05am by our police colleagues to reports of a collision on the A4118 between Penmaen and Parkmill, which was assessed and categorised in our amber call category.
“At the time of this call we had multiple ambulances queuing outside Morriston Hospital due to handover delays.
“As an ambulance service we have to prioritise the sickest patients first, and the information received from the police did not report any patients with life-threatening injuries.
“Before an ambulance could be sent, we were informed that our police colleagues had conveyed these patients to hospital.”
Mr Morris added: “We will be reviewing this call in partnership with South Wales Police as part of our joint emergency service procedures.”