EXCLUSIVE: Paramedic warns Scotland's ambulance service is facing toughest winter ever
We exclusively sat down with a front line paramedic who says she is under extreme pressure.
Last updated 20th Sep 2021
Forth 1 News is exclusively hearing from a paramedic who claims the ambulance service is under more pressure than ever as we head into the winter months.
Eilidh MacDonald has been in the job for two and a half years and feels under a lot of pressure.
She said: "I have colleagues who are making plans to leave because it is too much.
"It is the same in hospital A&E departments because it is not the job people signed up for."
"You could be with them in five minutes, but they are still ready to take their anger out on you"
The 29-year-old, from Glasgow, points out that her colleagues can often bear the brunt of frustrated patients and family members who have waited hours for an ambulance to arrive.
"It is hard because you can understand why they are angry and why this isn't what they wanted for their family member.
"However, they need to appreciate that we don't get that job when it comes in.
"We will probably be alerted to it hours later and we can only do as best we can at that time.
"There are also people who phone the ambulance service and you could be with them in five minutes, but they are still ready to take their anger out on you."
"A good day is getting a break to eat my dinner and not having to re-heat it ten times"
Eilidh points out that there are some days when she can expect to come in to calls where the patient has been waiting for 14 hours.
"You know the day is not going to go well when you start your shift at 1 o'clock in the afternoon and your first job has been waiting since 11 o'clock the night before.
"We often don't get breaks and sometimes the jobs you go to can play over in your mind for a long time.
"A good day is getting a break to eat my dinner and not having to re-heat it ten times because it has been disturbed."
"I love my job, but right now it is very hard to do the job and do it well"
Many paramedics are likening the current conditions to a busy winter pre-covid and Eilidh expects the coming months to be even harder.
"It's going to be chaos and I don't see how things are going to get better in the meantime.
"I think this winter will be worse than last year because at the time everybody was well aware of covid and we were distancing and the numbers were more under control.
"Even though we didn't have vaccines at that point there were less opportunities to end up in hospital because we were mixing with fewer people.
"I love my job, but right now it is very hard to do the job and do it well."
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Because of the global pandemic and its multiple knock-on effects, the Ambulance Service is under the most pressure it has ever been since the inception of the NHS in 1947.
“Our ambulance crews continue to do a fantastic job despite the challenges faced and we thank them for their continued efforts.
"The health and wellbeing of our crews is of paramount importance.
“As the First Minister has set out, we are already giving urgent consideration to temporary admission wards to ease bottlenecks between ambulances and our hospitals – and we are investing an extra £20 million to fund almost 300 new Ambulance Service staff.
“Targeted military assistance for the Ambulance Service has been requested.
"The decision on how these resources will be used is an operational matter for the Service and will be made on how they can best supplement existing resources and help ease some of the pressure across the Service.”