Diaries of ambulance technicians and paramedics: Struggles of service laid bare

THE SUNDAY POST can reveal dramatic diaries detailing the impossible conditions that ambulance service staff face on a daily basis.

We tasked three mercy crews from different parts of the country with keeping a log of every aspect of their working shifts.

Each account bristles with anger and frustration as rank-and-file crews divulge fears there are too few people doing too much work.

They claim the imbalance is costing patients’ lives and ruining the job they have dedicated their working lives to.

Using union delegates as go-betweens, the first-hand accounts were logged with The Sunday Post following shifts last week.

In the case of one crew, their log was delivered to our reporter in the form of minute-by-minute text updates from an ambulance passenger cabin.

Union official and Scottish Ambulance Service worker Jamie McNamee said: “These accounts lay bare the sort of difficult conditions we face on a day-to-day basis.”

In recent weeks, The Sunday Post has exposed the scale of the struggles faced by the beleaguered service.

Staff working dangerously long hours often without breaks, morale at an all-time low, evidence of an increase in mistakes and claims that lives were being lost as a result of a creaking service are among the bombshell claims we have uncovered.

So far, more than 300 whistleblowers have contacted The Sunday Post to lift the lid on their working conditions, sparking calls for a public inquiry into the state of the ambulance service.

Thursday night shift: Working late and rushed off our feet

AT 6.40pm on Thursday I’m at the station and getting ready for work.

We go into the locker room with the other crews who are about to start.

We have a laugh about work and the usual moan about being kept late five out of six shifts.

At 7pm we’re ready and booked on to a vehicle.

We’re about to start checking it when a job comes in almost immediately.

Control say they will try to get us back to do the checks we need to carry out on the ambulance, it never happens, but it’s a nice touch. The job turns out to be a fire brigade call.

We’re there just in case and fortunately there are no real injuries. To be safe we take a look at the patient, who is very drunk and aggressive. We were told to leave… and not in a nice way!

Given the wee gap in proceedings, we take the opportunity to do a quick check of the vehicle and found something was broken.

We called control and asked if we could go and make a running repair.

After being given the all-clear, we headed to the workshop but as soon as we got there, the inevitable happens: We get a call from control, chasing us to dash to an urgent job.

It’s an assault and it sounds like our colleagues from Police Scotland are already on the scene.

We had just arrived when we were stood down for another job, a person who had collapsed and was not breathing. We were there quickly but it turned out to be a drunk woman.

By around 9pm we were heading back into the city to a call that a man was unwell and the job had been waiting for 20 minutes. It turned out to be a community alarm call. We were unable to get in but finally managed to get the key safe number, only to find the patient asleep he must have pressed it by mistake.

After 10pm we were called by a doctor to a nursing home. We took the patient to hospital and when we got there we got a chance to play my favourite game hunt the trolley. You ask the porters for a trolley and they look at you as if you’ve asked them for money, or like you’re off your trolley!

Finally found one. The nurse was a bit nippy but it’s understandable, as she was dealing with five different ambulances in a 10-minute period.

I managed a quick chat with other crews and had the same moans dining, being kept late and not checking vehicles.

About 40 minutes later I was sent to a patient who was ‘unwell’ with no further details. On arrival the patient was feeling better, so we headed back to the station.

Friday paramedic shift: People just use us as a taxi service

A FEMALE paramedic gave us an insight into her Friday night shift.

I left the house 5.45pm for a 7pm start to get in on time. It’s Friday night so I’m unenthusiastic. Already one of the crews doesn’t have a vehicle.

We should get a minimum of 15 minutes to check the vehicles and kit them out properly at the start of the shift but one crew is out by five past.

We were out by 10 past, diverted from a red call (urgent) to a call from a GP someone with difficulty breathing.

This makes me fed up. The doctor didn’t look at the patient. If they had they could have been assessed to a triage unit. Around 8pm we arrived at hospital with the patient at the same time as three other vehicles.

It was gone 9pm before we were sent back to base to check our vehicle over. With that completed, we were back on the road, responding to a 999 call about a hand injury from a fall the previous day. The patient refused treatment so we started to head off to grab something to eat but were given another green call (less serious) which turned out to be drunks having a domestic.

We get this sort of call a lot. They will demand an ambulance then refuse any treatment.

Our dinner was interrupted again, this time for a purple call cardiac arrest. It’s for a different district that we’re meant to be covering, as there are no other vehicles available. It was a young female and resuscitation was not successful. She was pronounced dead.

At around 1am a man, who was under the influence, had been assaulted. He was abusive to the crew.

Shortly before 2am we deal with a drunk female, and then, just 50 yards up the road, we deal with a male who has a head injury, also intoxicated.

I was out again at 3am to an “assault” which turned out to be a minor scratch to the face.

Then it was off to a green call which was a community alarm and we weren’t required.

At 5am we responded to an emergency call to a young man with abdominal pains.

It was a steady night but one that shows just how we’re often called to jobs where we’re not really needed.

People use us as a taxi service.

And that makes my blood boil.

Care assistant: There’s no thought behind what we’re being asked to do

IT’s not just frontline paramedics and control staff who are feeling the pressure at the Scottish Ambulance Service.

One woman who works as an ambulance care assistant in the patient transport service contacted The Sunday Post as she wants people to know this vital part of the service is also struggling.

Here the woman who has more than 20 years’ experience charts her experiences during one shift last week:

“It’s the beginning of the shift.

I log on to my terminal and, holy moly, what a workload.

It appears my vehicle has gained a new function overnight a VTOL button (vertical take off and landing) that I didn’t previously know about.

The amount of work I have today, I’ve not got time to sit in traffic, as it turns out I’m due at two different hospitals at the same time.

I get one patient there early and another to a hospital across town barely on time.

We’re rushed off our feet so I request a voice call from the control room to get a steer.

There’s no answer from them.

I send a text message and I get a text back from them saying: ‘Sorry we missed your call but we’re extremely busy’.

The next run sees me attend a patient on time. They seem fairly pleased with our service, as they have used it on several occasions previously.

I’m now due to have my rest break, however, a patient has been booked for me who is ready to go home from hospital.

It’s a dilemma I face hundreds of times a week Do I have my break and keep the patient waiting? Or do I go and take the patient home?

No contest. I take the patient home. No point in keeping them waiting.

After the job I take the delayed break, but it’s an unpaid stop and I barely have time to gather my thoughts before I’m on the go again.

I request a voice call from control again and it’s answered fairly promptly. It must be one of the more experienced members of control staff today.

Can I help out with another patient? No problem.

I arrive at clinic at the same time as another crew.

I’m not sure where their patient is going but it’s odd that we’re now all heading in same direction.

Some 25 minutes later I’m still following the other crew. It turns out both patients came into hospital earlier on together as they both live in the same sheltered housing.

What a waste of resources. I’m fuming, as this typifies why we’re so stretched all the time. There’s no thought behind what we’re being asked to do.

Two vehicles, two patients and one sheltered housing complex.

Never mind the waste what about the knock-on effect on the patients waiting for us?

Frustrated does not even begin to explain this.

The next run I’m on is a patient to be discharged from hospital.

I arrive at the ward to be advised the patient is ready, and has been from early on, although waiting on pharmacy and medical discharge papers.

It’s a regular occurrence in this job. Again, very annoying. The ward could have had this organised beforehand, they knew the patient was going home.

Aaarrrrrggggghhhhh!”