An emergency call handler said it feels like their fault when they tell crying people they'll wait hours for an ambulance.
Janice Taylor, 40, worked at a sexual assault centre before becoming an emergency medical advisor (EMA) with the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) because she "wanted to help more people". Now the number of calls they receive is "extraordinary", she told the ECHO on a picket outside Estuary Point in Speke, home to NWAS's emergency operations centre.
She said: "We're doing three times what we did when I started, and it was hard when I started. Now every day is hard. You feel bad. We're not saving people. You know it's not your fault, but you feel like it is. The delays are bad, and it affects your mental health when people are crying down the phone saying, 'My mum's been on the floor for three hours'. You feel awful for it, and you take those ones home. It does affect your mental health."
