Patients in Wales who need an ambulance "may need to wait longer in the coming weeks" due to increasing demand, staff training and the withdrawal of the military, an NHS boss has warned. Jason Killens, chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, confirmed that the Armed Forces would stop volunteering as emergency drivers on March 30.
However there are calls to keep the military in post for the time being in the wake of worsening performance figures which show that barely half (52.5%) of immediately life-threatening "Red" calls were reached within the target time of eight minutes in January. The Welsh Government-set target of 65% has not been reached in 18 months.
The ambulance service is also experiencing significant problems with transferring patients into A&E departments in a timely manner, also known as handover delays. In February a total of 23,215 hours were "lost" by ambulances waiting outside hospitals for more than 15 minutes - the most ever recorded in a single month.
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Mr Killens said this was the third occasion the Welsh Ambulance Service had enlisted the help of the military since the pandemic began in what was always a "time-limited agreement to bolster capacity".
"We are proud and grateful for military support, but long-term it is not the role of the military to compensate for the complex and long-standing issues in the NHS," he said. "The withdrawal of the military has begun, and the final cohort of military colleagues complete their last shift on March 30."
Mr Killens added that the Welsh Ambulance Service has been making preparations "over many months" to lessen the impact of the withdrawal of the Armed Forces on patients. He said the service had recruited dozens of paramedics into the control room to treat more patients over the phone, in turn avoiding unnecessary trips to hospital.
"Advanced paramedic practitioners in the community are also treating more patients in the home, negating the need for an emergency ambulance to attend," he added. "This said, the reality is that some people may wait longer for our help in the coming weeks whist the substantial pressure remains across urgent and emergency care but our priority is, and always will be, to reach the sickest patients as fast as possible."
He said the public can play their part by using alternatives to the ambulance service where necessary, including the NHS 111 Wales website for advice and information, minor injury units, pharmacists, opticians and GPs. "Please only call 999 if a life is on the line," Mr Killens stressed.
However, Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds has called for Army support for the Welsh Ambulance Service to stay until the end of winter amid concern support is being withdrawn too soon. She said: "While I appreciate this is not the Armed Forces' day job, now is not the time to be removing their support.
"The ambulance service is barely coping as things are and I would be extremely worried that removing the support of the Army before the end of winter could worsen the waiting time crisis across Wales. This is especially in rural regions such as my own where targets are significantly further away from being met."
The slowest ambulances to reach life-threatened patients in January were in the Powys health board area with only 42.1% arriving within the eight-minute target. Only Cardiff and Vale UHB (68.1%), Aneurin Bevan UHB (56.5%) and Swansea Bay UHB (50.9%) posted figures above 50%.
Speaking in the Welsh Government press conference on Tuesday, Health Minister Eluned Morgan said there has been a "huge recruitment campaign" in the Welsh Ambulance Service to get more frontline workers. But she added: "There could be a couple of weeks where there might be some difficult situations as we see people leaving us from the Army, who have given us great support over the winter period, at the same time as new recruits are being trained."
Ms Morgan added that newer systems were being put in place to ensure that only those who needed to attend accident and emergency departments were being sent there by ambulance crews. In the Senedd on Wednesday, in response to a question by Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price, the health minister said she was not willing to accept that the ambulance service was facing a crisis.
"I don't accept that there's a crisis but I do accept that there's huge pressure on the service at present. We are determined to improve the situation. Of course, the thing to remember is that this is one part of a whole system issue."
