UK - Ambulance waiting times in parts of England 'off the scale' - January 7, 2021

[sharon sanders]

Ambulance waiting times in parts of England 'off the scale'


By Dr Faye Kirkland and Noel Titheradge
BBC News


snip

These figures are "off the scale", according to Royal College of Emergency Medicine Vice President Adrian Boyle.

"It is not because more ambulances are being called, it's because the amount of time they're spending outside a hospital has increased," he said.

Dr Boyle says ambulances left queuing outside hospitals meant crews were not available to respond to other emergencies.

He says services are facing a "crisis" unlike any other he has seen.

more...

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-555...1C-514B-11EB-AD18-5ECD4744363C&at_campaign=64

 

[Mary Wilson]

Covid patients at King George Hospital treated in ambulances and corridors, nurse reveals

Published: 5:00 PM January 7, 2021
Tom Ambrose

People with Covid are being treated in the back of ambulances because there is such little space remaining at King George Hospital in Goodmayes.

Almost every patient seen by the hospital’s accident and emergency department has the virus and many are unable to even sit upright while when being assessed, a member of medical staff has revealed.

She also told how other areas of the hospital, including a children’s ward, have been “taken over by Covid patients”, with some being treated in corridors.

The nurse, who requested to not be named, said: “On one day, we had 20 ambulances with patients parked up outside – it is exactly the same here as at Queen’s [in Romford].

“Medical staff are having to go out there, in PPE, to take blood tests in the back of the vans and every single one of them has Covid.

... The stark insight comes as Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT), which runs King George, admitted its oxygen supplies at Queen’s Hospital face “increasing demand”.

The trust is responsible for both hospitals and it is understood the scenes of ambulances backed up outside Queen’s last week have been replicated at King George too.

... The hospital has now converted its medical records department into an "ambulance receiving centre" to help cope with the flow of in-patients.

https://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/covid-patients-ambulance-king-george-6889906

 

[Mary Wilson]

COVID-19: 'Major incident' declared in London due to hospital pressure

Friday 8 January 2021 16:57, UK
Aubrey Allegretti

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has declared a "major incident" in the capital due to rising coronavirus cases threatening to overwhelm hospitals.

... Severe pressure has also spread to other emergency services.

The London Ambulance Service is taking up to 8,000 emergency calls a day now, compared to 5,500 on a typical busy day.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-major-incident-declared-in-london-due-to-hospital-pressure-12182329

 

[Vibrant62]

As a potted summary: St Johns ambulances are already deployed; firefighters will be driving ambulances shortly and police will be deployed to drive ambulances within the next few days. Current critical issues are oxygen supply - not to the hospitals themselves, but the infrastructure within hospitals themselves (pipework and distribution), as well as bed occupancy levels. Moves are underway to place non critical and non- covid patients to any vacant beds within nursing homes to free up bed space. It is unclear at present how the Nightingales may be used as the critical problem here remains how to staff them.