Desperate Scots paramedics ‘exhausted and undervalued’ as worker speaks out about service failings
| Published date | 13 September 2021 |
| Publication title | Daily Record, The / Sunday Mail: Web Edition Articles (Scotland) |
And we told how paramedicsunionUnite had demanded a “major incident” be declared in a bid to reduce waiting times – which have soared to an average of six hours.
We also revealed how Red Cross volunteers had been drafted in to assist paramedics facing seven-hour waits outside the Accident and Emergency department atGlasgow’sQueen Elizabeth Hospital.
One ambulance worker revealed the full extent of the crisis in a heartbreaking account.
She said: “I am extremely concerned for my own health and wellbeing and that of my fellow colleagues. It’s time the public had an insight into behind the scenes of 999 calls.
“We work various shift patterns, ranging from eight hours, 10 hours and 12 hours.
“At the start of our shift we book on to an ambulance and should have adequate time to carry out a vehicle inspection to ensure we have all the necessary equipment and drugs to carry the shift out safely and effectively.
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“However, this is almost always never the case and as soon as we book on we are dispatched to outstanding jobs – sometimes that have been in for over eight hours.”
The female paramedic, who does not want to be identified because she fears for her job, added: “In all the years I have been a paramedic I have never seen the job as bad as I do now.
“Yes, we are in unprecedented times but sickness records are high and morale is at an all-time low, with staff struggling mentally and physically.”
She said paramedics are entitled to a 45-minute break on a 12-hour shift and would expect to have it after about five hours of working.
But she said that “almost never” happens, with crews regularly working eight and 10 hours without adequate rest.
She added: “This is not safe and it’s not fair. If the crew has been fortunate enough to have their rest period after eight hours they often just make their food and sit down to eat it when the radio goes to say there is a red call transfer from one hospital to another.
“That eight hours then goes to potentially 10 hours and the food ends up being binned. How can we deliver lifesaving treatments to the public when we have had no food or drink for nine hours?”
And she fears lives could be lost because paramedics are fatigued.
She said: “Mistakes will be made and when that time comes it will be the crew who are disciplined not...
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