Fire Brigades Union demands 'emergency intervention' to prevent ambulance service crisis

Whitehall has been called to invest more cash and resources into South Central Ambulance Service (Scas) this week.

The plea was issued by leaders at the Fire Brigades Union who fear firefighters could be roped in to support Scas amid growing pressure on the NHS.

It comes as figures revealed today showed hundreds of patients being treated by Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust had waited longer than an hour to be handed over from ambulance to A&E staff.

The statistics, compiled by the Press Association news agency, showed that up to the week of December 12, 354 patients had faced a delay – second only to University Hospitals Birmingham.

The increase in waiting time is a sign of the ever-mounting pressure now facing emergency crews – who experts have warned face one of the bleakest winters in living memory, with the rise of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus now sweeping the nation.

The Fire Brigades Union, which represents hundreds of staff in the county, has now expressed its concerns that its crews may increasingly be relied upon to help transport patients to hospital, as ambulances are left stuck at hospital, or treat more heart attack victims.

Mark Chapman, southern regional secretary for the union, feared this could ignite a wider emergency service crisis, slowing down how quickly firefighters could react to blazes.

The former Portsmouth firefighter added crews were already ‘experiencing three-hour delays where we are cutting people out of cars but having to stay on scene and wait for an ambulance to arrive.’

‘Scas needs an emergency intervention by the government that sufficiently funds and resources this critical service rather than simply clapping hands,’ he told The News. ‘Firefighters and fire engines to plug the gap is not the answer.

‘Using fire engines and firefighters to resolve this issue does the contrary. It denies the public a vast array of unique skills specific to core fire and rescue duties that undoubtedly saves lives and that no other agency can replace.

‘It would remove a minimum of four firefighters, one fire engine and untold amounts of specialist equipment from being immediately available should someone need rescuing.

‘Scas needs immediate financial intervention, not a sticking plaster that damages the availability and response of another emergency service.’

As previously reported, ambulance crews are being pushed to the brink as they face up to their ‘busiest winter’ yet while treating more patients outside hospital to save over-stretched wards.

Scas has already called for military intervention as ‘exhausted staff ’ look for help to stem the flow of huge demand as it fields 4,500 calls a day from the public.

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Responding to the growing delays seen across the ambulance service, Professor Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: ‘Staff are continuing to go above and beyond looking after thousands of seriously ill Covid patients, delivering hundreds of thousands of jabs into arms every day while continuing to deal with higher levels of pressures for this time of the year.

‘No-one wants to spend more time in hospital than needed, and local NHS services are continuing to work closely with social care providers so patients can be discharged when they’re fit to leave.

‘As the NHS once again ramps up to deal with what is going to be an incredibly challenging winter, the best thing you can do to help is to come forward and get your jab.’

Since 2004 the fire service and Scas have been working in partnership, delivering ‘co-responding’ emergency aid across Hampshire.

Co-responders are firefighters who are scrambled to life-threatening medical emergencies, providing patient care prior to an ambulance resource attending the incident.

Speaking earlier this month, Mark Ainsworth, operations director of Scas, insisted there was ‘a lot of joint work’ being done between the ambulance service and Queen Alexandra Hospital to address treatment delays.

‘We’re doing all we can to only take appropriate patients into hospital,’ he said, adding that fewer than half of the patients seen go to hospital as crews were able to either treat them at the scene.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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