Covid-19: London paramedic says worst still to come

A paramedic has pleaded with the public to follow restrictions as pressure continues to pile on the NHS.

Martin Berry, a paramedic with the London Ambulance Service (LAS), said: "My plea to everyone is you must take your own responsibilities seriously."

He said he was "confident more hospitals and ambulance trusts will declare a major incident" as happened in Essex.

NHS England said all services remain open and no incident has been declared.

Mr Berry, a spokesman for the College of Paramedics, said he believed "there will still be a tough few weeks ahead" and the situation would probably get worse.

Ambulances have been seen queuing outside some London hospitals including The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.

A spokesman for Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said: "We are facing significant pressure from high Covid-19 admission rates and non-Covid winter demands.

"Due to the increase in demand and our robust infection control measures, we have been treating some patients who arrive at our emergency departments from their ambulance until a cubicle becomes available."

Mr Berry said many crews were spending the majority of their shifts with Covid patients and he had experienced hour-long waits to convey patients after arrival at hospital.

"On my last night shift every patient bar one was suspected Covid... the other was a mental health case, of someone who didn't have a long list of psychiatric problems but someone struggling with the effects of isolation," he said.

He said the service was also struggling to cope with the increased demand as more and more staff become ill or need to self-isolate.

"The impact is that we're not bulletproof, we're not immune to this virus... it's putting additional strain on a system that's already trying to plug gaps but there's no staff available."

As of 22 December, the latest figures available, hospitals across London were operating at 91% capacity with Kingston Hospital Trust having just one spare bed.

Mr Berry who works as a part-time paramedic alongside his teaching job, said he had taken on more shifts over Christmas to cope with the increase in demand for the service.

The LAS said demand had "risen sharply over the past few weeks" with up to 8,000 999 calls being taken compared to 5,500 on a normal busy day.

A spokeswoman said: "Our colleagues in emergency departments are also under pressure receiving our patients as quickly as they can. We are working urgently with NHS partners to reduce any delays."

To help, LAS has asked that the public only call 999 in a life-threatening emergency.