Staff in the Welsh Ambulance Service are "dead on their feet" from the pressures of Covid-19 and soaring numbers of 999 calls, two of its most senior bosses have warned. Director of operations Lee Brooks and director of paramedicine Andy Swinburn claim while the performance of the NHS trust is nowhere near where they want it to be, many of problems with the day-today running of the service are being caused by factors out of their control.
Latest figures from the Welsh Government show that ambulance staff reached barely half (51.1%) of 'Red' calls, those deemed immediately life-threatening, in the target time of eight minutes in March - the second worst on record. Wales' poorest-performing health board was Hywel Dda UHB, which covers Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, where just 43.2% of ambulances arrived within the eight-minute target. The target of 65% has not been reached in more than 18 months.
"The out-turn is not the out-turn that any of us would want. There are still large numbers of patients in our community, not just in the Red category but in the Amber category as well, who are waiting longer than any of us would want for an ambulance response," admitted Mr Brooks.
