Concerns raised after rise in ambulance response times in the East
The East of England Ambulance Service takes around ten minutes to reach the most urgent cases.
Last updated 12th Nov 2021
New data shows that the East of England Ambulance service is taking around ten minutes to attend to patients with the most serious conditions, the highest average response time they have ever recorded.
The figures are related to category 1 calls, which are to do with patients who are in life-threatening conditions. Nationally, the average waiting time for category 1 patients is nine minutes and 20 seconds, another record high.
Sam Older is the Eastern Regional organiser for UNISON, the public services trade union. He says: "During the pandemic, these (paramedic staff, A&E staff) workers haven't been on furlough and they haven't had a break.
"In fact they've had to work longer than ever before. It's also been difficult for new staff coming in to get adequate training because universities and training centres have been closed. So there's a lot of reasons why this is taking place."
Figures published last December by the Labour Party showed that NHS staff were working 1.1 million hours of unpaid overtime during the pandemic. Mr Older says emergency staff are burnt out and yet working under increasing stress. It has also been suggested that conditions will get worse, as many experts predict a difficult winter for the NHS.
Mr Older says the ambulance service staff's inability to reach situations on time has caused an immense strain on their mental health: "They know there are calls stacking up but they have to wait behind two or three ambulances to hand over to a nurse or A&E department who are themselves overworked and may take time to collect the patients.
"It gets to them because they are also worried about the condition of the patient and want to care for them."
How can these strains on emergency services be addressed in the short term. Mr. Older says the public should be conscious of the backlog that ambulances are facing, and call them only when its absolutely essential to do so.
"It's going to be about the expectations of the pubic. Currently its (ambulance services) a finite resource, and the public need to recognise that", he adds.
An East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust spokesman said: “We’re working closely with our healthcare partners to keep patients safe and provide timely care, despite very high demands for our services.
“The public can help us reduce ambulance delays by using NHS 111 online to get advice on the most appropriate service rather than calling 999 unless it’s a life-threatening emergency.”
They also have officers, who are embedded at hospitals, to monitor the level of demand at each ED and divert crews, where appropriate, to other hospitals with capacity so that patients are seen more quickly.
But this will only ease the burden on the East of England Ambulance service in the short term. Mr. Older says the situation wasn't great before the pandemic either: "It was an underfunded service, which needed long term support and not just short fixes."
So is it just about increased financial support to the NHS?
"It's bigger than just money. If an area has only one or a few hospitals, that's where all the ambulances will go to. There has been a 25 percent increase in number of people making category 1 calls in the last two years.
"To manage this increase, various resources need to be made available to the NHS, including more hospitals or other sites where these ambulances can take patients who need emergency care."