TV show shines light on pressures faced by Lancaster ambulance crew

Thursday, 21 March 2024 10:44

The pressures faced by an NHS ambulance crew in Lancaster have been highlighted in another episode of a hit documentary series.

The last episode in the current series of the BBC’s Ambulance featured a paramedic crew from the North West Ambulance Service, who are based out of Lancaster’s ambulance station on Cable Street.

The programme showed the pressures a lack of resources available to respond to emergency calls can have, with Jared and Asher, a student paramedic, sent to a variety of call outs.

Asher is an emergency medical technician, working towards her paramedic degree as part of the ambulance service’s apprenticeship programme. She’s now due to qualify in just a few months.

Firstly, they are dispatched to a man in Lancaster who has fallen down the stairs after drinking too much. While they work on the tenderness in his spine, he opens up about why he is using drink to cope. It turns out he has been caring for his grandmother, who has a brain tumour.

As they get the patient onto the ambulance, Asher reveals that her dad has been alcohol-dependent all of her life, but she thinks going through the hard times has made her empathise with patients. She likes being the person that can give people both help and hope.

Later in the episode, it’s seven hours into the shift, and there is a worrying shortage of ambulances. Fifty-eight crews are waiting at hospitals to hand over their patients when a call comes in for a 76-year-old man struggling to breathe in Kendal. The closest ambulance has broken down, so dispatcher Graham needs to get the second closest resource to the patient - but they are 22 miles away.

On arrival, Jared and Asher assess the patient. They worry that he is showing signs of sepsis and decide to urgently blue light him to the nearest emergency department at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Due to his potentially life-threatening condition, he is taken straight into A&E. Unfortunately, the other crews there are still experiencing handover delays of up to 41 minutes, and across the region, the number of ambulances now stuck waiting outside hospitals has risen to 70.

Finally, Asher and Jared receive a call for a one-year-old child having a suspected allergic reaction in Scotforth.

After an initial panic trying to locate the child, Asher and Jared spot the mum and baby. The boy has had allergic reactions in the past, so the crew take mum and baby to hospital. Back in the truck, Asher reveals that she called an ambulance for her daughter when she was younger – and this has brought it all flooding back.

The episode highlights the acute challenges faced by the ambulance service when delays at hospital mean that they’re not available to treat patients. Despite the rising challenge, the crews, call handlers and dispatchers always try to keep a smile on their faces, while using their personal experience and empathy to ensure their patients feel they are receiving the best care available, in difficult circumstances.

Filmed during a historical period of uncertainty for the NHS, the series introduces the staff of North West Ambulance Service across Lancashire, from the picket line to the front line. It shines a light on the uncertainties faced by the NHS today, while the ambulance service continues to deliver life-saving care to the people of the region.

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