Devon and Cornwall NHS facing 'unbelievable pressure'

A man from Devon who had to wait more than 13 hours for an ambulance says the NHS is under "unbelievable pressure".

Paramedics were called when Geoff Clapp, of East Prawle in the South Hams, suffered a suspected blood clot on the lungs in September.

Mr Clapp said he had to wait nine hours to be admitted to A&E and then spent a further 24 hours in a corridor on a hospital trolley.

NHS England said staff were working "round-the-clock".

Nationally, the latest figures show nearly 40% of A&E patients who need admitting face a delay of four hours or more waiting for a bed to be found.

Prof Adrian Harris, from the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, said Covid, more patients and staff recruitment issues had caused a "perfect storm".

He added: "These are the most challenging circumstances we find ourselves in.

"We're recovering from Covid - and Covid has added complexity. We're in winter and we're seeing a greater flow of patients than we've ever seen."

Speaking about his experience at Derriford Hospital, Mr Clapp said there was "something inherently wrong" with the system.

In addition to waiting for an ambulance, he said he spent 24 hours on a trolley in the hospital corridor alongside other patients, one of whom was 98.

"They are just completely overawed by the volume of patients and the volume of work," he said.

"It was the ambulance staff that were looking after us in the corridors... [they] were dedicated to looking after patients before they actually got into the hospital itself."

He praised the professionalism of NHS staff but said they have "a lot to put up with".

"We're not living in a Third World country are we?" he said.

"There must be something inherently wrong somewhere. I don't think it's the nursing staff at all but they are under unbelievable pressure.

"You really wonder how they cope."

The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust apologised for the delay in reaching Mr Clapp.

"Our ambulance clinicians strive every day to give their best to patients but our performance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, partly due to handover delays at emergency departments," a spokeswoman said.

"Health and social care services are under enormous pressure. We are working with our partners in the NHS and social care to do all we can to improve the service that patients receive."

The University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust said demand for care was exceeding capacity.

"While we are unable to comment on individual patient cases, we apologise that patients are experiencing long waits," the trust said.

"This is not a situation we want for any of our patients and our dedicated staff are working extremely hard to make sure patients are seen in order of clinical need."

Nationally the NHS waiting list has hit a record high while A&E departments experienced their worst performance on record against a four-hour target, new figures show.

Data from NHS England shows nationally 7.2m people were waiting to start routine treatment at the end of October, up from 7.1m in September and the highest number since records began in August 2007.

Dr Vin Diwakar, of NHS England, said staff were working "round-the-clock" to try to see and treat patients as quickly as they could.

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