‘Welsh Ambulance Service faces overload crisis on a daily basis’
THE Welsh Ambulance Service is facing a “catastrophic crisis on a daily basis” due to growing demand, lack of resources, and inappropriate use of 999 by the public, its employees have warned.
And one of Wales’ leading unions claims the situation is “fast becoming a matter of life and death” as the trust attempts to pick up the problems of the wider health and care system that is “not fit for purpose”.
According to latest figures, the Welsh Ambulance Service received 1,000 more calls than expected on New Year’s Day and 300 more on Boxing Day which put a huge strain on ambulance crews across the country.
It added that many of these calls did not warrant an emergency response and included complaints about back and shoulder pain, stomach ache, coughs and colds.
One member of staff, who did not want to be named, said he was “sick” of going to inappropriate calls when he knew there were others who needed urgent attention.
“I recently went to three inappropriate calls in a row and then to a woman who had been on the floor with a broken hip for five hours,” he said.
“Once I was on the scene it took another hour to get an ambulance crew and a further one and a half hours to get her out. That’s seven and a half hours from fall to ambulance.”
While he was off duty over the Christmas period he said he was asked to treat a neighbour who had fallen and suffered multiple injuries.
“It was my time to experience an incident from the public’s point of view,” he added.
“I was put in a queue to get an answer to my 999 call, which was dealt with by north Wales despite me being in the south.
“The call, as typical, was coded green [the least severe]. Recently, colleagues have been sent on green calls in excess of two days old. After a call back from a clinician it was upgraded to amber two.
“While I was assured that it was a quiet night it took four hours to get an ambulance. This isn’t the exception, it’s now the norm.”
He also claimed calls were being recorded as amber, rather than the most serious red category, so they wouldn’t be subjected to an eightminute timed target.
“The Welsh Ambulance Service are in a catastrophic crisis on a daily basis. It’s got nothing to do with winter pressures – it was the same in the summer,” he added.
“Patients with genuine need wait hour after hour while resources are tied up attending inappropriate calls or queuing outside hospitals.
“Most genuine 999 calls are coded as amber one and are no longer given targets, which means nobody cares about how long it takes to get them any help.
“These calls include stroke, chest pain, breathing problems, serious bleeding, and unconsciousness – calls that most of the public would imagine would be coded red.”
Another employee said there was a desperate need for more staff to be recruited.
He said: “We are desperately in need of extra crews and road staff to meet the growing demand, yet all we seem to have is more management jobs. Every locality is in need of at least one extra crew.”
Darron Dupre, Unison lead for the Welsh Ambulance Service, said staff have come to him “in despair” because of their workloads.
He said: “They are working as hard as they possibly can, often going way beyond the call of duty, to keep services running this winter.
“They are worried about the pressures the NHS is under and that their overriding duty to their patients is being undermined.
“The normal winter problems are compounded because we have an emergency care and social care system that doesn’t seem to support a population which is living longer and has complex health needs.
“Our ambulances stacked outside emergency departments are not, by and large, filled with patients who do not need to be in hospital.
“They are increasingly filled with older patients who once they get to hospital find it increasingly difficult to get in and even more difficult to leave because community support is not where it needs to be.
“This situation is fast becoming a matter of life and death. This cannot continue and the Welsh Ambulance Service and the wider emergency care system just cannot be left picking up the problems of a wider care system that is not fit for purpose.”
Richard Lee, the Welsh Ambulance Service’s director of operations, said: “During the Christmas and New Year period there has been sustained pressure across the whole health system.
“On New Year’s Day we responded to more than 1,800 incidents, and have also encountered significant handover delays at hospitals.
“We’re acutely aware of the worry this causes for patients and relatives waiting longer for an ambulance as a result, and the frustration and concern it leads to for our staff, who work tirelessly day in, day out to help the people of Wales.
“We’re immensely proud of the high standard of clinical care our colleagues provide and are willing to support them in any way we can.
“That’s why it’s particularly disheartening when an individual chooses to make claims through the media, rather than allow us to address them directly.
“We always try to get to all emergency calls as quickly as possible, where long delays occur our paramedics and nurses within the contact centres undertake calls to try and ensure that patients are supported whilst awaiting our response.
“We are confident of the robustness of our clinical response model in prioritising the sickest patients first.
“However, we recognise that some patients do face longer waits than we would like when system-wide pressures occur, and continue to work with our NHS Wales colleagues and partner agencies to ensure their safety.
“In the meantime, we would like to thank staff working hard in all areas of the Trust for the benefit of our patients during this difficult period.”