Potential heart attack and stroke victims face delays

Heart attack and stroke victims are amongst those who could be forced to wait due to staff shortages in the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, its medical director has said.

Infection levels have reached their highest to date, and appear to be still increasing according to the latest figures.

The unprecedented scale of the surge in new coronavirus cases in Northern Ireland, fuelled by the more transmissible omicron variant, has meant large numbers of medical staff have been unable to go to work after testing positive.

In the ambulance service that applies to around to 200 staff members, according to medical director Dr Nigel Ruddell.

Dr Rudell said around another 100 are unable to work for other reasons, meaning more than one-in-five of its total 1,400-strong workforce are absent.

On Thursday night, a spokesperson for the service said even the most urgent ambulance calls could face delays.

This was down both to staff absences and pressures at hospital emergency departments.

“The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service is experiencing unprecedented pressure due to the number of staff unable to attend work as a result of Covid-19 and our ability to respond due to pressures at Emergency Departments, resulting in delayed turnaround times for ambulances,” the spokesperson said.

Dr Rudell, speaking to BBC Radio Foyle, saideven potential heart attack and stroke victims could face delays.

“We prioritise all calls and will always do our absolute best to get an emergency ambulance response out to those most critical calls, those immediately life threatening calls, but we are seeing patients who are presenting with symptoms of potential stroke for example who are waiting one, sometimes two hours for an ambulance to arrive,” he told the broadcaster.

He continued: “There are some occasions where it may be quicker, and I personally had to do this yesterday, to advise a patient to be transported by their family because they will arrive at hospital and hopefully start their treatment quicker than we would have an ambulance arrive at their house.”

Dr Rudell added: ““We have to make a very fine-balanced judgement call, is it safe for somebody to travel in a car, can they physically be got into a car and be transported safely by relatives?

“We are balancing that against those cases where it is important they start getting definitive care.”