All sirens blazing- E&S spends a shift with West Midlands Ambulance Service paramedics

In through the front door and straight ahead in a bedroom two ambulance staff are attempting to bring back to life a 79-year-old woman who is positioned on the floor.

In the hallway her 82-year-old husband directs the incoming clinical team mentor Paul Taylor and trainee paramedic Gail Hollyhomes, who have arrived to offer extra support.

He then stands nervously while looking out at the rain lashing down through his bungalow's open front door.

"The doctors said she only had six weeks," he says. "I think she accepted this was going to happen soon, but this has never happened before."

He waits and listens while the now strengthened team of four emergency staff do their work. They can be heard performing CPR behind the closed bedroom door.

Almost half an hour passes.

The man is then asked to come into the living room and he is told the news he dreads. His wife of 28 years has died.

They sit him down, compassionately tell him what has happened before his daughter comes running inside. The paperwork is completed, the equipment taken from the house and the police called.

12.30pm

It is 12.30pm on Saturday and West Midlands Ambulance Service staff had been bracing for what they believed could be their busiest weekend of the year.

This is the second emergency call-out for Paul and Gail, who are five hours into their 12-hour shift.

It will be another three hours and two jobs – a young fitness instructor in agony with back pain and a pregnant woman with chest pain – before they finally get their first break.

"This is actually one of our quieter shifts," Gail says. "We usually have a lot more on than this," she adds.

The 49-year-old grew up in Cradley and now lives in Gornal. She left school to study catering before working at venues like the Civic Centre in Wolverhampton and Stewart Bistro in Bilston.

But 13 years ago she packed it in and swapped the hot kitchens for the ambulance service, joining first as an emergency care assistant before progressing to be technician and now a trainee paramedic.

"I love the job, it is a real privilege to do," she says. "Every day is different and the response you get from most people is brilliant, they are really appreciative of what you do."

Gail is based at Dudley ambulance station along with Paul, who has worked as a clinical team mentor for 10 years. About 200 other staff are positioned at the station. They are contracted to work 37.5 hour weeks, but can work up to 60 hours, with up to five successive 12-hour shifts.

They turn up for work and go to a notice board to find out who they are partnered with for their shift and which one of the 22 stationed ambulances they will be taking.

The vehicles are re-stocked, fuelled and cleaned by a team of ambulance fleet assistants, also based at the station in Burton Road.

As part of the Make Ready scheme rolled out two years ago, stations have closed and been replaced with stand-by points served by a hub such as Dudley ambulance station.

8.55am

Gail and Paul first head to Brierley Hill before they are called on their first job – High Street in Stourbridge. They are told it is a crash, but turn up to find just one vehicle with the casualty, a 50-year-old woman, sitting in the passenger seat.

She complains of shoulder pain after a car went into the back of her vehicle. Gail first checks her over in the car before moving her inside the ambulance. She is given pain killers and asked questions for a detailed report staff have to fill for every patient.

10.11am

Next the team heads to Kidderminster to be joined with a pair of ambulance staff already trying to save the 79-year-old woman, who has terminal cancer.

Gail says: "We have to keep moving, we can't let things impact us too much otherwise we can't focus on our next job."

12.16pm

It is a callout to Wollescote where we the team is led to a flat and a woman screaming from the bedroom. Already at the scene are two response team workers circling around the young fitness instructor.

She felt a tinge when ironing the day before, but is now suffering from severe back pain which is spreading to her limbs. She shouts out in anguish as a tube is inserted in her wrist and morphine is pumped into her vein.

An oxygen tank is brought in too and soon her cries fade away. It's not known what the cause of the pain is so a stairway chair is brought up and she is taken into the ambulance.

1.44pm

Arriving at Russells Hall Hospital, all but one of the eight ambulance bays are filled. Gail and Paul let out a groan. This means they could be facing a delay in handing over the woman to the hospital.

Sure enough there is already one patient on a stretcher in the corridor waiting to be assigned a nurse. The hospital has a deadline of 15 minutes – we wait 22 minutes before getting on the road again.

2.30pm

It looks as if the hard-working pair may finally get their lunch break, but just as they turn up to the ambulance station, the call comes in again. A 27-year-old pregnant woman in Blackacre Road in Dudley is suffering chest pain.

Arriving at the house, the woman complains of pain when she breathes and talks. Tests are carried out on her heart. Everything seems to be normal, but Paul and Gail advise her to see a doctor.

Another detailed report card has to be filled.

3.30pm

Finally the team arrives back at the station. While it may have been busy for the crew, the service did not get a record amount of call-outs over the weekend. Crews were sent to 7,889 incidents from Friday to Sunday, 439 up from the year before.

Acting emergency services director Nathan Hudson said: "Although we have got through this weekend, there is no sign the level of demand shows any sign of reducing and it is still considerably above what we would expect to see at this time of year.

"As a result, we will be ensuring that we do everything we can to prepare for every eventuality and we would ask the public to do likewise."