NHS paramedic in plea over lockdown rules
An NHS paramedic has called on people to follow lockdown regulations to help reduce mounting pressure on the NHS.
Adam Aston, who is also a councillor in Dudley, was on shift on January 4 – the busiest day ever experienced by West Midlands Ambulance Service when 5,383 calls were dealt with.
He spoke of huge levels of demand on services and said 12-hour shifts were increasingly spent treating patients who were struggling to breath while waiting to access treatment.
It comes after Halesowen South councillor Ray Burston was expelled from Dudley Council’s Conservative group for encouraging people to ignore lockdown rules.
Mr Burston claimed the Government’s Covid response was having a devastating effect on communities and accused the NHS of abandoning people suffering from other life-threatening illnesses.
Labour councillor Mr Aston, who represents Upper Gornal and Woodsetton on Dudley Council, said: “In 16 years as a paramedic with the ambulance service, I have never known such demand or pressure on our emergency care system.
“Each-12 hour shift this week has involved treating increasing number of patients in respiratory distress followed by long delays outside every local hospital due to lack of capacity inside.”
Mr Aston said he was “incredibly disappointed” with Mr Burston’s comments which he said “undermine the public health message”.
“This is particularly the case as he accuses the NHS of abandoning people suffering from other diseases such as heart disease.
“It’s for this very reason that people should do everything they can to avoid catching Covid-19, so that there is an ambulance and a hospital bed available to those people when they need one in an emergency, whether Covid related or not.
“To those who disbelieve the seriousness of the current situation, I wish each of them could spend a shift with me. On behalf of every frontline NHS worker in the borough, I would ask everyone to do everything they can to support the fight against this virus and protect our NHS.”
Announcing his decision to suspend Mr Burston, council leader Patrick Harley said the “outburst was extremely foolish.”
