Ambulance crews under strain but worse was avoided

Irene McLean fell while trying to put on her slippers

Irene McLean turned 99 on Friday. Then, on Sunday night, she fell while trying to put her slippers on and remained lying on her living room floor until police were called to break down the door the next morning.

At about 3pm in the afternoon, ambulance crew Fraser Hutchison and Jonathan Beveridge arrive at her house in Baillieston near Glasgow.

After some strong pain relief she is in good spirits.

"I've had a lovely day with all these nice men," Irene says. "They've all been very nice."

The two ambulance crew is more company than she had enjoyed on her big birthday.

• Surge in ambulance calls for mental health issues

"I've no family here at all," she says, and the lockdown restrictions mean she couldn't have a cup of tea or glass of wine with anyone.

She says: "Only by yourself, which I did."

John Leary, who lives nearby, says neighbours were concerned when Irene didn't open the curtains or answer the telephone.

"They think she's maybe dislocated or broken her pelvis," he says. "Hopefully she'll recover."

Mr Leary says that because of Covid her family will not be able to travel to visit her when she goes to hospital.

Before they could reach Irene, the ambulance crew had spent over an hour outside the emergency department of Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University hospital, with another elderly patient.

To stop the spread of coronavirus, they can no longer take patients inside to wait for treatment. So they joined a row of vehicles outside the hospital.

Paramedic Fraser says it puts pressure on the service.

"There are probably resources sitting waiting at the hospital, accumulating hours and hours of the day when they could be responding to other calls," he says.

"I think it definitely has an impact on the speed that patients are waiting on an ambulance and receive one.

"I imagine there will be a lot of calls outstanding in our control room at the moment."

'Not getting as many drunk people'

In evidence to a Holyrood committee on Tuesday, the Scottish Ambulance Service said it was facing extra costs of about £18.5m because of Covid.

Staffing costs account for about half of that - with a total of 670 ambulance service workers having tested positive for Covid so far.

Fraser tested positive in August but believes he picked up the virus in the pub, not at work.

Ambulance technician Jonathan only started his frontline training last year. So far he has avoided Covid but says it is a concern.

He says: "Obviously every day you come into work and you worry and you wonder, am I going to get it today? Do I have it just now? Am I just not symptomatic?"

"It's just being careful, making sure you're wearing masks, adhering to the rules."

Like other parts of the NHS, the service has been under strain.

During the second wave of the pandemic, they have seen the usual rise in winter pressures, despite a national lockdown.

"With it being wintertime it's an added extra pressure, along with the hospitals kind of bursting at the seams," says Fraser.

"I think having the lockdown has offset how much worse it could be.

"Maybe not getting as many drunk people who are not able to look after themselves in the street, I guess that's kind of died down. But I would say breathing problems have increased."

Jonathan and Fraser says lockdown has stopped the pressure on services getting worse

The ambulance service says overall demand had dropped during lockdown but calls for people needing help with a mental health issue had risen by 9%.

And that's reflected in the last two calls of this team's shift. They help admit two women to hospital, one struggling with alcohol addiction and one who has self-harmed.

Jonathan, who used to work in the ambulance control room, says it has been a rewarding change to look after patients face to face, and that his colleagues just try to be there for each other.

"Despite coronavirus I'm glad I can help in some sort of way, people that are in need of help."

Fraser says he likes to make connections with people, if only for a short time.

"I enjoy finding out people's life stories," he says. "Even if just when I hand them over to the nursing staff, they just say thanks very much for looking after me, it's a really rewarding part of the job."