Trusts said they have now resolved supply issues by increasing tank deliveries from main NHS supplier BOC
Ambulance crews in parts of the country hard hit by covid-19 have run very low on oxygen or out of it entirely on several occasions in the last month,
HSJ has learnt.
HSJ understands East of England Ambulance Service Trust had to dispatch ambulance crews with very limited oxygen supply earlier this month due to strained tank supplies. At one point, crews were sent out with “a single, quarter-full portable oxygen bottle where they used to have at least four portable bottles on the vehicle”, according to one source close to the trust.
Leaked data suggests around one in 10 calls over last fortnight redirected
SWAS has provided most aid since start of year, according to internal data
Thousands of calls have been redirected from London’s ambulance trust to providers in other regions in “unprecedented” levels of sustained support, leaked data has revealed.
According to internal data, obtained by
HSJ, London Ambulance Service Trust redirected more than 12,800 emergency 999 calls to other ambulance trusts across the country. This includes just over 1,000 category one calls, which are those deemed immediately life-threatening.
LAS has faced immense pressure recently due to the covid-19 pandemic. Calls to its service have reached between 8,000 and 8,500 per day. Using this figure,
The number of ambulances waiting more than an hour to hand over patients hit a new high last week as pressure from coronavirus increased even though the number of people being taken to hospital has dropped.
Charity urges trusts to reconsider offering home births
Closures echo those in first wave
Some trusts in London and the South East are closing standalone birth centres and warning they cannot support home births because of high levels of demand for ambulance services from covid patients.
Women in East Sussex who planned to give birth at Eastbourne District General Hospital and Crowborough Birth Centre have been told they need to go to other units. Both Eastbourne and Crowborough have standalone midwife-led units and women who have a difficult labour would need to be transferred by ambulance to another hospital.
Both East Sussex Healthcare Trust and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust, which run the services, cited pressure on the ambulance services as the reason for the closures. The trusts, both of which are served by South East Coast Ambulance Service Foundation Trust, have also suspended support for home births.