At least three ambulance services declare critical incidents ahead of strike
North East Ambulance Service, South East Coast Ambulance and the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust have all moved to the status.
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Your support makes all the difference.At least three ambulance services have declared critical incidents as NHS services around the country face “unprecedented” pressure, ahead of planned strike action.
North East Ambulance Service, South East Coast Ambulance Service and the East of England Ambulance Service have all moved to the status as staff work to respond to calls.
The services said they took the decision due to pressures including 999 call volumes and hospital handover delays, and that declaring the status allows them to instigate additional measures to protect patient safety.
It comes as fears grow over the impact of an ambulance strike on Wednesday, when thousands of paramedics, technicians, control room workers and other staff walk out.
North East Ambulance Service operates across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Darlington and Teesside; South East Coast Ambulance Service covers Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent, Surrey and North East Hampshire; while the East of England Ambulance Service works in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
North East Ambulance Service said it declared a critical incident on Monday afternoon as a result of “significant delays for more than 200 patients waiting for an ambulance, together with a reduction in ambulance crew availability to respond because of delays in handing over patients at the region’s hospitals”.
Declaring a critical incident means we can focus our resources on those patients most in need and communicates the pressures we are under to our health system partners who can provide support
Stephen Segasby, chief operating officer at the service, said: “Our service is under unprecedented pressure.
“Declaring a critical incident means we can focus our resources on those patients most in need and communicates the pressures we are under to our health system partners who can provide support.
“We are asking the public to call us only in a life-threatening emergency.”
Mr Segasby urged other patients to speak to their GP or pharmacist or use the NHS 111 website.
“Our staff and volunteers continue to work extremely hard to respond to calls and incidents,” he said.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work and commitment at this challenging time.”
The ambulance service said declaring a critical incident allows it to instigate several additional measures to protect patient safety.
This includes seeking mutual aid, cancelling all training to allow for the redeployment of all clinical staff, no longer taking bookings for urgent non-emergency transportation and increasing third-party provider provision.
South East Coast Ambulance Service said it decided to declare a critical incident on Monday “following a period of more than a week of sustained pressure across our 999 and 111 services, significantly impacting on our ability to respond to patients”.
The East of England Ambulance Service, declaring critical incident status in a statement on Monday, said it was “currently under huge pressure as a consequence of 999 call volumes and hospital handover delays”.
“Declaring a critical incident means we can ensure our resources are focused on patients with the greatest need, as well as allow us to access wider support from our health and care partners,” the trust said.
Meanwhile, a critical incident was also declared at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, which said its emergency department was “full with patients that need admission” but that there was “limited space to treat patients with life-threatening conditions and injuries”.