Emergency services being stretched

Monday 06 April 2020

Volunteers have been called in to help staff at St John Ambulance over the past week, as the number of call outs the emergency service had to deal with became too much for on duty staff to cope with.

The number of calls for help from the Emergency Ambulance Service is said to have increased over the past few days, "with some periods of particularly high demand".

Over the seven days leading up to Saturday 4 April, the total number of calls was described as "significantly above the normal daily average for the service".

During some particularly busy periods on some days over the week, the ambulance service had to respond to multiple calls at the same time meaning officers and off-duty staff being called in to respond. Some of those calls were outside of Guernsey putting additional pressure on resources at an already unusual time for the emergency services.

Among the call outs were three to Sark, with the the Flying Christine III dispatched twice within a day, on Wednesday and then in the early hours of Thursday, before being called out again on Friday.

Each of the three call outs to Sark were described as 'medical cases' with paramedics on board the marine ambulance, alongside the volunteer crew members. 

Pictured: The Flying Christine went to Sark three times within two days last week. 

As the corona virus continues to take a stronger hold on Guernsey, other call outs for the ambulance service have been to patients displaying potential covid-19 symptoms. Those calls in particular are currently taking a "significant amount of time" and mean staff have to wear extra PPE as a precaution, and the ambulances need to be deep cleaned after each call before they can be deployed again.

Volunteers have been tasked with helping to clean the ambulances so that they can be ready for duty again as quickly as possible, while staff are also free to work.

A spokesperson for St John Ambulance said: "We would like to thank the volunteers who have offered their help at this time."

Most of the call outs St John Ambulance respond to are considered 'multi-agency' meaning all of the blue light services have to attend, taking more staff away from other duties at this time. That includes the three road accidents reported last week, during the lock down period.

The St John Ambulance spokesperson said: 

"We are working closely with colleagues at HSC and in the Emergency Department and because many of these call outs can be complex they require a multi-agency approach."

As well as the emergency services, other volunteer services have been called out, including the St Peter Port lifeboat which responded to a call on Sunday morning. The crew found nothing though.

Pictured: File image of Guernsey's lifeboat, by Tony Rive. 

Mike Harris, the Duty Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator said a flare was reported as being seen in the area around the Rousse headland, which led to the lifeboat being launched at 05:39 yesterday morning.

Weather conditions at the time were described as "good with excellent visibility and calm seas" but on arriving at the scene, the Lifeboat crew found nothing, even though they searched the area for around two hours. The shoreline, local moorings and carparks in the Rousse area were also checked.