The NSW paramedics union has lashed out at the state government over its handling of the healthcare system which it claims is the worst its ever been.
The Australian Paramedics Association said positive covid cases have been left waiting for up to five hours in their cars outside Westmead Hospital in Sydney’s west on Tuesday, in what it has described as a “health system in crisis”.
“We are hearing that of the 13 cars in bed block at Westmead Hospital, almost every car had a Covid+ patient in it,” the union wrote on its Facebook page.
“Paramedics who have worked for over 20 years have never seen the health system this bad.”
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It went on to explain some patients are being X-rayed in the ambulance bays without any privacy screening.
“Reports are that there are no available bathrooms, so some Covid+ patients are waiting 4 or 5 hours with no opportunity to use a toilet. Or, they are told to use the bathroom for hospital and Paramedic staff, putting everyone at risk.”
The Union said paramedics are being forced to sit on the floor in parking lots to complete paperwork and sometimes have to “eat sitting in the gutter”.
“We get so cold that we have to be brought hospital blankets,” the post continued.
The union has written to NSW Health and NSW Ambulance demanding immediate action is taken to provide paramedics with a safe place to eat, rest and complete their paperwork — as well as addressing their concerns over patient safety.
“It is distressing to have to advocate for the most basic rights, but that is the crisis we are in.”
The union continued that it is the paramedic who is there from the beginning — entering households, determining if a patient is a covid risk, to working 16 hour shifts “without a break”.
“Some days, it seems like no one knows how to keep us safe.”
One image shows a parking lot full of ambulances at St George Hospital on Tuesday afternoon, alongside the caption: “When will NSW Health admit that the system is in crisis?”
The ambulance service has since responded to the union’s concerns saying they will provide paramedics with chairs.
Brett Simpson, from the Australian Paramedics Association, said the public “should be outraged” given the strain on the workforce, telling 7 News it is “unlike anything he has ever seen before”.
The union also shared images of doctors wheeling equipment to patients for checks such as chest X-rays, before they can be admitted.
On that point, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said: “That’s not unusual, it happens in every system across the world. In urgent times it also happens during flu seasons.”
Mr Simpson was outraged by the Health Minister’s response, saying: “It is not acceptable in Sydney, or New South Wales for that matter, for this to now be accepted by the Heath Minister as the ‘new normal’.”
The confronting situation comes after a spike in overnight covid admissions in Greater Sydney.
The number of Delta suffers being treated in hospital is up from 391 to 447.
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