Shropshire paramedics on picket lines share 'soul-destroying' truth about life in ambulance service

"We take on board the pain of our patients. It's demoralising... soul destroying. This has cost lives." Those are the words of some of Shropshire's paramedics, as they laid bare the brutal truth about why they are taking part in strike action.

Ambulance workers, stuck in shocking queues outside Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, as patients lie stricken in their vehicles, listen on their radios as life-threatening Category One calls come in. They cannot go to the patient's rescue until they are able to drop off their current patient - often finding themselves doing 13-hour shifts with no breaks.

Meanwhile, an elderly patient who had a fall has been lying on her floor for up to 30 hours. West Midlands Ambulance Service cannot get to her. It doesn't have the resources available.

All this while pay stagnates, loyal and committed workers find themselves with no choice but to leave, and for those left behind, the workload piles up and the morale sinks lower.

At the picket in Donnington, there were members of the workforce on the picket line who have many years of service.

Darren Hall, 56, from Albrighton, joined the ambulance service as a technician in 1992 and qualified as a paramedic in 1994.

He believes the NHS is at risk from chronic and a "deliberate" underfunding

"The normal experience for us now is to spend a shift queueing up at a hospital with us being unable to respond to category one calls.

"It is routine now for us to go to elderly people who have been lying on the floor for 24-30 hours, which is a life-threatening amount of time.

"It has cost lives. We can be sitting in a queue at a hospital, hearing that a category one call has come in but we have no resource to send.

"Hospitals can't discharge people who can't be discharged home. We used to have social placements for people and cottage hospitals where they could be looked after, but the infrastructure is not there anymore."

He added that the problems can be solved by investment but the current state of affairs has been "accepted as the new normal". But he said the public understands the issues

"In 18 months when I go to a member of the public who will have to wait for primary care I usually start with an apology but I have not met with any abuse."

"If people think this is just about money, they are sorely mistaken."

The crews were all available to respond to the most serious calls.

"Category two calls for strokes and heart attacks are being triaged by clinicians and union reps for a response," added Darren.

"I would never contemplate anything that puts lives in danger. The NHS is a national treasure and I have given my working life to protect it. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our nursing colleagues, one of whom I saw in tears at a local hospital."

Jessica Wright, 26, from Allscott, has been in the ambulance service for four years and qualified as a paramedic in March.

"We can no longer rely on doing a job in our last hour because of the hospital situation. There is no one to hand over to if we are in a hospital queue - if you get a job late that's the end of it," she said.

"We can guarantee that we will be queuing on 100 per cent of calls. We have to make the patients aware of that and some do not want to go to the hospitals. We then have to make sure that they are looked after in the community. Sometimes doctors aren't available for that."

Others on the picket line spoke of colleagues leaving their jobs and of being on the brink of going themselves

A paramedic with 12 years of experience said: "We are regularly working 12 hours without a break, sometimes 13 hours. Nobody wants to work on 13-hour shifts."

A student said that she was not able to build up her skills by going on calls.

"You don't learn much by sitting in a queue outside a hospital," she said.

Jacqueline Murphy, the Donnington rep of the GMB union and a technician with 22 years of experience, said: "I have worked for the ambulance service for many, many years. But I have seen over the last 10 years there has been a lack of funding in the NHS that has caused deaths and delays."

She added that on Wedmesday in Shropshire an elderly patient spent seven hours on the floor at home, eight hours with the ambulance service and even then the patient was "left in the corridor at A&E because the hospital was full",

"Social care and the NHS are underfunded so we cannot provide for then when they need us to," she added.

In Shrewsbury, around 10 workers gathered around a fire in their uniforms, holding up flags. They had a big box of snacks to see them through the duration of the picket, which was to run from 6am to 6pm. Many motorists beeped their horns in support on their way past on Longden Road.

Alex Kapitanec, paramedic and union member, said: "Here in Shropshire we want to give the best service we can, but at the moment we can't do that.

"The support has been really good for the most part (at the picket). We've had relatives pop down and bring us bits and bobs and people offering us teas and coffees."

Simon Day, a Shrewsbury-based paramedic who is branch secretary of the GMB Union, said: "We have been gobsmacked. The support has been amazing. People have been making a lot of noise.

"The numbers of outstanding calls we have been experiencing has been far less than usual. I think that's because people are behind us. They are just not calling.

"The hospitals are following a different pattern, so we've not got the queues outside that we normally have. Numbers of calls are probably three times lower."

He added: "We've had 12 years of stagnating pay. With inflation its a 20 per cent decline in real terms. People are leaving because they can't afford the cost of living and can't cope with the pressure. That leads to our staff doing more work because there are less of us.

"We're supposed to have 400 crews across the region but sometimes we have 50 less than that. I've been doing this job for 14 years and I've never experienced this amount of pressure.

"Around 10 per cent of staff left in the last 12 months. It just doesn't work any more."

Simon said: "I love this job. Although I've had times where I've thought enough is enough, I haven't got to the point where I've left. But lots of people have. It's demoralising. It's soul destroying.

"Our paramedics got into this job because on some level they have care and compassion for the general public. We take on board the pain of our patients.

"There needs to be a change in political choice. Our employers' hands are tied by government funding.

"It's the Health Secretary (Steve Barclay) and the Government as a whole that we are extending our arm to in hope they will come around the table and talk to us.

"We have a greatly-demoralised workforce that is made to feel undervalued, not important and not worth investing in."

Report by Nick Humphreys and David Tooley