Staff face 'grim' winter with reputation 'taking a kicking' as pressure grows, head of Welsh Ambulance Service warns

28 October 2022, 06:58

By Daniel Bevan

The head of the Welsh Ambulance Service has warned staff they will be facing a "grim" winter and that their reputation will "take a kicking" as pressure grows.

Jason Killens made the comments at a roadshow in Cardiff, which is part of a series of engagement events across the country.

It is as LBC revealed yesterday that a group of Welsh politicians want to increase the priority level for stroke victims because of poor response times.

Strokes have fallen into the amber category in Wales, where 59% of calls were answered within the target time in August of this year.

The Welsh Government say calls are prioritised based on the latest clinical evidence and are under ongoing review.

Speaking exclusively to LBC, Mr Killens said: "As we go into the Winter, we know it’s going to be tough.

"Not only for us in the Ambulance Service but across the rest of the NHS too.

"We’ve got more work than we’ve ever had before and there’s pressure across the rest of the NHS impacting our ability to respond.

"Despite growth of more than 400 new staff in the 999 service, we’ve got far too many patients waiting far too long in the community."

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Head of Welsh Ambulance Service warns of 'grim' wiater

Lines of ambulances outside of hospitals has become an all too familiar sight, but the fear is delays are going to get worse in the coming months.

In September, the service lost around 25,000 emergency ambulance hours, which is around 30% of the total time ambulances are available in Wales per month, because of delays in handing patients over to hospitals.

This then has a knock-on effect in getting ambulances to people who are in an emergency.

Mr Killens said: "To those listeners who have been subject to a delay and had to wait for us to come in recent months – I’m sorry.

"We prioritise our calls all of the time and we always go to the sickest patients first when the resource is available.

"What [the delays] mean is we get big, big queuing and patients sadly wait longer.

"Pressure is very high and as we enter winter with flu and adverse weather to come and possibly another run of Covid, you can see the pressure is going to grow even more than it is today.

"It’s going to be really tough."