“With surges like is happening now,it can be really difficult to safely move patients through to[emergency departments],” he said,with massive demand on the network resulting in patients “with less severe conditions ... not getting the experience of us that they need”.
Screenshots seen by theHerald show ambulance executive management have asked paramedic crews to work overtime and start day shifts two hours early to “assist with backlog”.
One NSW Ambulance manager,who cannot be named because he is not authorised to speak publicly,said paramedics across metropolitan Sydney are being asked to work up to 16-hour shifts in an effort to “mop up all the calls ambulances haven’t been able to get to overnight”.
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Morgan said that,while paramedics are “still[able] to get to immediately life-threatening conditions well within the benchmark”,some less urgent cases are seeing delays in response times as massive spikes in triple zero calls coincidewith flu cases soaring,staff off sick and high numbers of COVID-19 infections in the community.
Brett Simpson,an intensive care paramedic and Australian Paramedics Association representative,said patients were waiting “longer than ever” due to soaring call volume,increased hospital delays and the “sheer number of days we are at status three,where we don’t have enough ambulances to respond to jobs”.
“There can be absolutely no denial[that] patients are at serious risk of severe adverse outcomes,” Simpson said.