AMBULANCE services are at risk of being destroyed by rising Covid cases, extreme temperatures and an increase in calls across the UK.
Patients have been warned only to call 999 in life-or-death situations and many people who are severely ill have had to wait hours – even overnight – for hard-pressed paramedics to arrive.
5
Rachel Power, chief executive officer of the Patients Association, says the current situation is so serious that people’s lives are at risk.
Some seriously ill or injured patients are even being told to make their own way to A&E.
Lynsey hopes reports.
Alert!
ALL ten ambulance service in England have declared that they are a “critical incident”Because of the relentless pressure on NHS services.
This rarely used highest level alert – known as Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) – is only declared when an ambulance service can no longer effectively deliver a service, typically due to a major incident.
In the meantime, emergency services in Scotland remain at alert level 3.
Bosses have warned phone services are chock-a-block and that people should not call 999 back to find out where the ambulance is unless the patient’s condition has changed.
This is because urgent assistance calls must be answered immediately.
Martin Flaherty, managing director of the Association of Ambulance Executives, said that many crews are stuck waiting outside hospitals unable to transfer patients to busy A&E departments.
He added: “Severe delays in ambulance crews being able to hand over their patients at many hospital emergency departments are having a very significant impact on the ambulance sector’s ability to respond to patients as quickly as we would like to, because our crews are stuck outside those hospitals.
“Added to this, we have a number of staff absences due to the rise in Covid cases as well as additional pressures caused by the hot weather, which is making things even tougher for our staff and the patients they are caring for.”
Health minister Maria Caulfield is due to hold crisis meetings with all England’s ambulance trusts over the next week.
She informed MPs about the difficulties that the NHS faces“pressures we would normally expect to see in winter” and taking record numbers of 999 calls.
When should you dial
“AMBULANCE services are under immense pressure,”Rachel Ward, a Didcot-based NHS General Practitioner, says
“We want the ambulance service to be able to continue to respond to emergencies, so please call 999 if you have a true emergency, if someone is seriously ill or injured or you think a life is at risk.
5
“Remember there are multiple other ways of getting help from our NHS.
“The 111 online service or 111 by phone are ideal if you need urgent medical advice and you aren’t sure what to do or where you should go“.
They are in close contact with 999 to arrange an ambulance for you.
“Your GP can deal with many acute illnesses and minor injury units are able to manage many injuries like sprains, cuts and minor burns.
“Your pharmacist can help with mild illnesses.”
She also adds: “There are lots of ways of getting help from the NHS but at such busy times it is important to use the correct service.”
Waiting game
ONE community nurse recently told how she was unable to save her neighbour’s life after he waited two hours for an ambulance.
Claire, 49-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent called an ambulance when her 59-year-old neighbor collapsed.
After waiting around two hours for paramedics, the man suffered cardiac arrest. Claire tried CPR but was unable save him.
Category two cases – those which are categorised as severe but not life-threatening – are being hit by even longer waiting times.
Rachel Power, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, said the delays stem from problems in social care as many hospitals are unable to discharge patients who need care to free beds for new patients arriving in A&E.
She said: “We are becoming increasingly alarmed at the crisis engulfing ambulance services in England and what that means for individual patients.
“Ambulances not turning up when you’ve called 999, being left in an ambulance for hours before being admitted . . . these are terrible experiences for patients and their families, which put patients’ lives at risk, and cannot be allowed to continue.
“We wrote to the Health Secretary last autumn about how bad the situation in A&E was, but here we are at the height of summer and the situation appears to be even worse.
“We are calling for major investment in social care to let hospitals safely discharge medically fit patients who need care which would free up beds for new patients.
“The ambulance service, doctors and leaders in the NHS have all identified delayed discharge as a major reason for problems in A&E, which in turn affects the ambulance service.”
‘Third degree burns and it took nine hours to be seen’
SAL Williams, 44-year-old mother of four from St Just in Cornwall, waited three hour for an ambulance after she suffered severe scalding at her home.
After being taken to A&E, she then had to wait six hours in the back of an ambulance while on morphine before being seen.
5
Sal says: “I’d just got back from a horse ride in December and was making myself a cuppa.
“The cord and plug had been moved and the power point was down near the floor. I turned around, caught my foot in a cord, and it sent boiling water all over my body, including my feet.
“The pain was unreal and I could feel my flesh burning.
“My daughter called an ambulance while I jumped in a cold shower to try to ease the pain.
899,167 Ambulance calls answered in June in England* (*a record for the month).
Sun Source
“I was in severe pain and my skin started to blister. I used clingfilm that I learned in first aid to cover my burns. I was stunned to discover that no help had arrived after an hour and a quarter. I drifted in and out of consciousness.
“Paramedics finally arrived after three hours and I was given a type of morphine. I was taken to the hospital, but there was a backlog with 20 ambulances that were waiting to load patients at Treliske Hospital in Truro.
“The crew were amazing. They hooked me up to a fluid drip and continued to give me morphine while I waited, but it shouldn’t have been like this.
“It took another six hours until I was admitted to A&E.
“Doctors were overwhelmed and it was shocking to see. I was told I had second and third-degree burns – and they can be life-threatening if not treated quickly.
“The delay could have cost me my life. I would urge anyone, please don’t call an ambulance unless it’s a true emergency.”
‘Gran, 91, faced a ten-hour ambulance wait after a fall’
CHARLOTTE Moody, 42, from Retford, Notts, says her grandmother, Martha Houtby, aged 91, was told by her doctor that she would have to wait for an ambulance after a falling..
She says: “My nan, who has dementia and arthritis, had a fall on April 6 and was in pain all night before managing to get to the phone at 8am on April 7.
5
Martha called niece Beverley, and Charlotte says: “Bev phoned for an ambulance but was told it would take ten hours, so she called me and, together with Bev’s son, we lifted Nan off the floor. She was very confused and in pain.
“We called the GP and arranged for a home assessment, but we waited until 5.30pm for a paramedic to arrive.
“She was given antibiotics for a water infection.
“I took two days off work to look after her but on Sunday, April 10, she was very confused so I called 111 who sent an ambulance. Four hours later, we arrived at Bassetlaw Hospital, where she had to wait in the ambulance for an hour and wasn’t seen for eight hours.
9 MINS 6 SECS – Average response time for life or death calls* (*Target is 7 mins).
Sun Source
“She was discharged 15 days later and the hospital had lost her false teeth.”
Abigail Trainer, acting chief nurse at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals, said: “I want to apologise to Mrs Houtby and her family – we take matters such as this very seriously.
Greg Cox, divisional Director for Nottinghamshire at East Midlands Ambulance Service said that he was “deeply sorry” for the distress caused, adding: “We were responding to significant high demand, and advised there would be a delay in our response.
“Given they decided to seek advice from their GP, the family called us back 20 minutes later to cancel the ambulance.”
‘I had a seizure but had to make my own way to A&E’
SOME seriously ill or injured patients have been forced to make their own way to A&E.
Rebecca Mullock, a website designer, is among them. She is from Paignton in Devon and is married to Dave, a 47-year-old machine operator.
5
After suffering a seizure, she waited three hours to be taken by an ambulance before making her way to the hospital.
Rebecca recalls: “I was sat watching telly with my husband when something came on the news about the war in Ukraine.
“I said, ‘What war?’ and couldn’t remember anything about it.
“That night, I had several panic attacks and around 4am suffered a massive seizure. I was shaking and fell on the floor and though I was conscious, I was unresponsive.”
51 MINS 38 SECS – Average response time for heart attack calls* (*Target is 18 mins).
Sun Source
Dave placed her in the recovery place and dialed 999. “He waited two hours for the ambulance but when it didn’t turn up, he rang back for an update.
“They said they were very busy and were trying to get to everyone as fast as they could.
“I was still lying on the floor unable to speak.”
Dave waited another hour and at around 5am called Rachel’s mum, who drove them to Torbay Hospital A&E, in Torquay, where ambulances were queuing to try to hand over patients.
“Fortunately, I was fine afterwards and have been well since, but a seizure could have been life-threatening,”Rachel.
“Who knows when an ambulance might have arrived?
“It’s frightening to think what might have happened.”