Nicola Grant Workers Party Regional Spokesperson has called on the Health Minister to scrap the reported decision intended to be implemented at the end of the month that ambulance crews must leave hospital emergency departments after two hours.
Ms Grant said this is not only a ridiculous decision but a dangerous one, at the moment we have ambulance crews with patients being triaged in the back of ambulance’s that are queuing for hours because of the lack of beds in our hospitals, overcrowded emergency departments, and patients unable to be discharged from hospital because of the lack of home care packages. Does the minister or the ambulance service believe that instructing crews to leave after two hours is a solution to what is a major and ongoing crisis in our healthcare system. This decision is devoid of all logic and places crews, emergency department staff and patients in a dangerous situation.
Ms grant highlighted the fact that in the Workers Party response to the consultation on the better hospitals better outcomes, that intends to transfer services across Northern Ireland, that more ambulance cover would be needed. More hospital beds would be needed, home care services would needed to be brought back into the public sector as a starting point to tackle a staff shortage both in terms of hospital staff and community staff.
The decision on ambulances is outrageous given none of the above has happened and it places ambulance crews and emergency department staff in an impossible situation. Where are the patients to go when the emergency department is full to capacity, do crews leave them on the doorstep of the hospital, this so called rescue mission to alleviate the waiting times for patients needing emergency medical intervention is the equivalent to rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. It will make a bad situation worse, what is needed is a properly funded health care system not tick box exercise that will put patients lives at risk.