East paramedic speaks of 'dangerous' lack of resources in emergency care
New figures reveal one in four ambulance workers in the UK have witnessed a death, which they believe is due to delays, in the last three years
Last updated 12th Jun 2024
A former paramedic who worked for the East of England Ambulance Service says she was regularly abused, both verbally and physically.
It comes as new figures from the GMB Union reveal four out of five ambulance workers have suffered verbal abuse, with a third reporting they've been physically attacked.
Almost 3000 ambulance staff responded to the survey, in which one in four said they'd witnessed a death, which they believe is due to delays, in the last three years.
Nearly half also admitted to spending an entire shift queuing outside a hospital A&E department with a patient.
Donna Thomas worked as senior emergency medical technician: "I noticed more and more that we were having to break into homes because people had passed away before we could help them, because we'd taken so long to get there...
"My colleagues are telling me they're getting on the scene, and because people have been waiting for hours, they don't realise an ambulance crew's only just been given this job and have no idea this call's been outstanding.
"It's pretty bad for crews out on the road... I was severely assaulted in 2016 by a patient, but the abuse you get is daily."
What did the survey find?
The results of the GMB Union survey can be seen below, it was completed by ambulance workers, control centre workers and 999 and 111 call handlers:
• 24.4% of ambulance workers had witnessed a death due to delays during the past three years
• 31% know of a case where this has happened
• Almost half (43%) spent an entire shift waiting outside A&E in past three years
• 82% have suffered verbal abuse in the past three years, with 33 per cent suffering physical attacks
• 70% have considered leaving the service in the past year
"The system is broken"
Paul Turner is a paramedic in the North West and says it's not just hospital delays that can cause issues day to day: "What also doesn't help is when people call ambulances inappropriately.
"Even if an ambulance turns up, there's no guarantee that we'll take you to hospital. Our role is to try and keep you out of hospital as much as we can so that we don't impact on that delay.
"That's obviously done in the safest and most appropriate way, but then the amount of paperwork that's required afterwards could take between 45 minutes to an hour. So again, we're stuck outside someone's address doing paperwork instead of a hospital.
"The last shift I did, we got eight or nine calls in the day and I only took one patient to hospital; so you can see the proportion of people who actually do not need to go to hospital. The system is broken and I don't know what the answer is right now."
A spokesperson for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust said:
"While we are unable to comment on the GMB’s national statement on the ambulance service, in terms of our organisation in the East of England, we acknowledge that delays at hospital emergency departments continue to challenge us at peak times.
"We deeply regret harm caused to patients as a result of handover delays or extended response times. We are aware of the impact these challenges have on our people and the welfare of our staff is a priority.
"EEAST has a wide range of services available to support the mental and physical welfare of our people, and have robust systems to protect those raising concerns about patient or staff safety."