INVESTIGATION: Yorkshire paramedic claims NHS is 'bursting at the seams'
We've been speaking to one paramedic to see how staff are coping with the toughest winter in the NHS yet
Last updated 21st Dec 2022
As ambulance staff across North Yorkshire join national strikes, a paramedic says she's been left heart-broken by the breakdown in patient care.
We're continuing a behind the scenes look at how the NHS - and its staff - are coping with it's toughest winter yet.
Emma Scott-Spivey works out of York and says people are often being left in the back of ambulance or in hospital corridors for hours - because there's no space:
"This is poorly patients that have been brought in by ambulances and are sometimes are waiting 50 minutes just to access a resus bay in the hospital.
"We're at loggerheads - there is no room in the hospital system. And yet, we still have these patients that are coming in the system and at some point, something has to give. It feels like we're bursting at the seams."
Waiting game
It's been widely reported nationally that some paramedics are forced to wait for hours in ambulances where they are forced to provide care to patients.
In North Yorkshire, Deanne Ferguson, a member of the GMB union, took to Twitter last month (November) to highlight the exact issue.
She shared a video of the situation at Scarborough Hospital, where she said that at one point she counted 14 ambulances waiting:
In November, a spokesperson for the York and Scarborough NHS Trust said 'its emergency departments “are currently under extreme pressure'.
In a statement, it added that 'high numbers of patients waiting to be discharged “who no longer need to be in hospital” is resulting in patients waiting longer for beds to become available'.
They said that this caused delays in admission to the emergency department and delays in the hospital’s ability to hand over ambulances.
System under pressure
Emma joined the NHS when she was 18-years-old:
"If someone told me, when I joined the health service, that I would spend the majority of my time looking at the walls of hospital corridors, I would have probably disbelieved them - but it is the situation we're facing.
"We're spending 6, 7, 8 or more hours in a corridor, with patients that we're unable to hand over. And ultimately that is not what we're there for - that's time that we could be spending seeing other vulnerable patients in the community.
"We're losing resources to hospital wait times."
"Sometimes the bare minimum is the best we can provide"
Emma continued: "We are letting patients down. They are not receiving the care they deserve. And that hurts.
"Nobody goes into the ambulance service to deliver the bare minimum. But sometimes the bare minimum is the best we can provide."
Greatest Hits Radio has pressed the Government on the pressures the health service is under. It says health and social care was a priority in its autumn budget, with an extra 14 billion pounds over the next two years.
Going on strike
Emma's account comes as thousands of ambulance workers and paramedics go on today (Wednesday, 21 December) after talks between the Government and unions failed to address the issue of pay.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay met union representatives on Tuesday (20 December) but discussions around wages were off the table as the Government sought reassurances over strike cover.
Members of Unison and GMB are walking out today and on the 28 December.
After the meeting with unions, Mr Barclay tweeted: "I hugely value the work of our NHS staff & it's disappointing some union members are going ahead with further strike action - my door remains open to further talks. Unions have called for industrial action to cause maximum disruption & inevitably this will have an impact.
"My priority remains patient safety. We have contingency plans in place & I have met with ambulance union reps today urging them to honour their commitment to provide responses to life-threatening emergency calls."
Unions have urged the Government to make an offer on pay, suggesting an agreement could be reached.