A woman was left in shock after her injured relative waited three hours in an ambulance queue to be admitted to casualty.
Hayley Jaffrey, of Alford, rushed into hospital last Saturday after she was told one of her relatives had been involved in an accident.
When the 50-year-old arrived at the emergency department, she discovered the patient had been sitting inside an ambulance for an hour in a queue.
She was then taken into a room at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where she waited with Hayley for a further two hours to be seen.
‘It’s absolutely awful’
Hayley was shocked to see so many ambulances queuing outside the casualty department at 2.30pm on a Saturday.
And she said it was clear paramedics were now at “breaking point”.
“It was like a conveyor belt,” she said. “There were 10 ambulances in the bay when I got there.
“The patients couldn’t get in because there were four patients in the holding area already waiting to get into A&E.
“Some of the ambulances had been there for hours and that’s them off-road.
“It’s absolutely awful.”
Paramedics are being forced to wait in lengthy queues to hand patients over to hospital medics working under “extremely busy” conditions.
Wait with paramedics: ‘The system is broken’
Hayley said it was clear from her own experience just how frustrated crews are at having to spend large parts of their shifts queuing outside hospitals.
“They’re somewhat resigned, because the system is broken and they’re not heard,” she said.
“But they are compelled to help because it’s in their very nature.
“They’re working 12-hour shifts and they might not get finished on their 12th hour.
“A good portion of that can actually be spent sitting in the van and that’s not what they want to do.
“There was an ambulance, I believe, sitting outside in the queue for a couple hours from Tomintoul and they were coming to the end of their shift.
“They still had to travel back – and Tomintoul won’t have a wealth of ambulances or crews to replace them I’m sure.
“They’re at breaking point and they’re only human. They’re amazing humans and they’re at absolutely capacity and we just can’t have that.”
Hayley, who worked for NHS24 for seven years writing clinical care pathways, said it was clear that urgent action needed to be taken to solve the problem.
But despite her lengthy wait with paramedics at ARI, she said that at no point did she have any concerns over her relative’s care.
“Her care was never compromised. The paramedics were watching her and assessing her all the time.
“I’m absolutely confident that if at any point she deteriorated or there was an indication that she needed to be fast-tracked in, she would have been.
“Once she was in the department, she was turned around quickly.”
What does she think will help solve the problem?
Hayley described the situation as “soul destroying” for paramedics sitting in long queues outside hospitals.
“I worked for seven years in the NHS and I know exactly where some of those systemic issues happen and it’s got nothing to do with the staff,” she said.
“We can start by giving them resources, and paying them fairly, actually paying them handsomely because they absolutely deserve it.
“I would really like to see Nicola Sturgeon do something a bit more radical here.
“Our government is really pushing these amazing people who serve us to the absolute brink and that’s not OK.”
‘Bottlenecked at A&E’
Hayley was keen to highlight that she witnessed “amazing” work of paramedics working against a “frustrating and exhausting” system.
“None of them are comfortable with the fact that people are at home and have phoned an ambulance and can’t get it because they’re bottlenecked at A&E,” she said.
“I don’t know how they can do that job, I really don’t. It takes a very special kind of person.
“I was telling the paramedics that I’m glad they are here but I couldn’t do it myself – and I certainly couldn’t work under these atrocious conditions.”
What are NHS Grampian saying about the situation?
NHS Grampian stressed that the city hospital is “extremely busy” and that new beds have even been opened up in wards to help manage the high demand.
A spokeswoman said: “We are sorry to hear about this patient’s wait, though we are pleased to learn their relative was confident in the standard of care we provided.
“We work hard to get people out of ambulances and into hospital as quickly and safely as we can.
“Neither we, nor Scottish Ambulance Service, wish to have vehicles waiting at hospitals any longer than necessary.
“However, at extremely busy times, when we do not have beds immediately available, we cannot bring patients in.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “This winter is going to be extremely challenging for our NHS with pressure across the system.
“Patient safety remains our top priority and long waits are not acceptable.
“Our investment of £50m to drive down A&E waiting times, improve patient experience and flow through the system will help to reduce delays for ambulance crews handing over patients.”
Do you also have a health story you would like to share? You can contact me at charlotte.thomson@dcthomson.co.uk
