Ambulance waiting times during the pandemic

College of Paramedics Chief Executive Tracy Nicholls talks on BBC Breakfast about ambulance waiting times during the pandemic.

[gerryd]

Even after the pandemic it's Nine Nine nae chance !!!

[argl]

Another feeble bite size topic which beats around the bush that the majority of 999 calls
and blue right responses are never emergencies.

The ambulance service and other parts of the NHS have slept walk themselves into the corner of trying to appease everyone. No longer is it a service for life-threatening emergencies but something that tries to placate every minor ailment or interprets every complaint over the phone as some catastrophic event no matter how pathetic it sounds.

Patient's seem to never be asked to make their own way or get a taxi. Don't want to wait
long at A&E? Well, better send you an ambulance instead. Repeat caller cries wolf for the 100th time? This time it might be different. Etc.

Clinicians feel no support for when they see a situation for what it is. Instead they take irrelevant observations, document information which will go unread, and waste a good hour waiting on the phone for a 111 GP to prescribe a slightly stronger does of co-codamol for Mary's 10 year history of backpain.

I wonder if the public truly understands the actual work the ambulance service carries out?