A driver who was injured following an RTC involving a motorcycle Vs car, had to be transported to hospital in a fire engine, as there were no ambulances available to send to the incident.
The Welsh Ambulance Service confirmed that, at the time of the incident, it was experiencing a high volume of calls, which is why no ambulances were available.
Jeff Morris, ambulance operations manager in the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board area, told WalesOnline: “The call was assessed and categorised as serious but not immediately life-threatening.
“Unfortunately, at the time of this call we were experiencing high demand and this, coupled with significant handover delays at Morriston Hospital meant we didn’t have a resource to send at that moment in time.
“An off-duty paramedic provided care and assistance to the patient until a paramedic in a rapid response car arrived at the scene, and that paramedic travelled with the patient in the fire appliance to hospital.
“We would not normally sanction the conveyance of a patient to hospital in a fire appliance but the decision was made dynamically by the paramedic at scene in the best of interests of the patient.”
He added: “We are grateful for the efforts our fire service colleagues made to support us, but this is not the service we want to provide and we are working with our emergency service partners to minimise this as far as possible.
“We’re investigating this case under our Adverse Incident Policy and would invite the patient to contact us directly so that we can offer him a full explanation of what happened. Our thoughts and well wishes are with him at this time.”
During my own time in the Police, it was not uncommon to take patients to hospital in a Police vehicle when waiting times for ambulances exceeded 60 minutes.
The worst case I dealt with, involved a motorcyclist who had literally smashed his leg to pieces.
The London Ambulance Service had no units to send, because, quite simply, there weren’t any!
No doubt, some idiots will take pictures of Ambulance Crews on well-deserved breaks, and claim that these kind of stories are a ‘fabrication’ of the truth.
Well, that is complete and utter bo**locks. The reason this sort of thing happens, is because of a severe lack of understanding when it comes to successive Governments in relation to the real issues facing ambulance crews and A&E staff.
The ‘blame’ lies with them, not the men and women manning the #ThinGreenLine..
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