A Wiltshire hospital is struggling to cope with an influx of patients being admitted.
Yesterday afternoon, 15 ambulances – all double-crewed – were seen queuing outside the Great Western Hospital’s emergency department before later being turned away.
Paramedics and emergency care assistants waited in their emergency vehicles alongside patients needing medical treatment for more than three hours before being refused admission.
The queuing ambulance crews were sent to a hospital some 40 miles away – believed to be the Royal United Hospital in Bath.
A video, filmed by a South Western Ambulance Service (SWAST) staff member sat in the passenger seat of an ambulance, was sent into the Facebook page Emergency Services Humour. It’s thought that their aim was to show the struggle the NHS is facing due to a mix of normal winter pressures and COVID-19.
Talking to Wiltshire 999s, a SWAST source said: “It’s been like this for days”.
“It’s due to a combination of the normal winter pressures and extra COVID patients”, they added.
“To fix this, crippling years of underfunding needs to be reversed. When you have a healthcare system that is just about coping under normal conditions, it’s not going to be able to maintain a safe service in times of increased pressure.”
