Islanders with life-threatening medical emergencies are, on average, waiting nearly 5 minutes longer for an ambulance than is expected, latest figures from the Isle of Wight NHS Trust reveal.
In January 2020, the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service took 11 minutes 55 seconds (mean avg) to respond to Category 1 calls – life-threatening emergencies including cardiac or respiratory arrest. The expected target time, known as an Ambulance Response Programme (ARP), is 7 minutes.
For Category 2 calls, which includes emergencies such as strokes or chest pain, the wait was even longer with the average response time coming in at 27 minutes 31 seconds – the target is just 18 minutes.
The inability to hit target times isn’t just a one-off with the Ambulance Service failing to reach the ARP time across Category 1-4 calls in October, November and December. In fact, things have deteriorated in recent months with the average Cat 1 call response going from 09:12 in October to 11:55 in January.
Furthermore, figures show that the Island has a lack of ambulances and the ambulances it does have are being stretched to the limit, with each crew responding to 16.4 incidents a day on average – a stark comparison to South Central Ambulance Service’s 12 incidents a day. It’s said that patient transport to the mainland via ambulance reduces the fleet by 1, thus putting pressure on the remaining crews.
An independent report commissioned by the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service (IOWAS) last year revealed that to meet demand and attain response standards, a total of 8 double-crewed ambulances and 2 rapid response vehicles are needed during the day, reducing to 6+2 at night. However, it has been confirmed to Island Echo that most days IOWAS only has 5 ambulances available to respond (avg), which includes ambulances for patient transport duties.
Increasing the capacity of the ambulance service here on the Isle of Wight would cost in the region of £1.5million-£1.8million, however, it has been suggested that such funding might better serve the Island by being invested into South Central Ambulance Service – a larger organisation with more capacity which could provide economies of scale and provide a more robust service.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Isle of Wight NHS Trust has told Island Echo:
“We know that there is a lot of work to do to improve our response times and we sincerely apologise to all of our residents and patients for these on-going delays.
“On average there are just 5 ambulances in active service on the Island each day and these teams also have to support patient transfers to and from the mainland.
“The small scale of our service and the geography of the Isle of Wight means significant and unique challenges but we are working with South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) to help us continue to improve.”
In addition to the emergency ambulances, a total of 23 Community First Responders and Co-Responders are available to provide additional support across the Island.
Last year the Care Quality Commission (CQC) identified significant improvement within the Ambulance Service.
All the years of fiddling the figures on the island made things worse. All the time this was going on, the real waiting times were never addressed. Also, the disparity between office staff and operational road staff is Ridiculous. Occasionally, as little as 3 ambulances on the road along with an unqualified crew just isn’t enough for the ever increasing island population. Also, sometimes an ambulance will be sent to the mainland reducing cover even further. The service management now includes staff that have never even worked on an ambulance so have no concept of the work involved which also means they are unable to respond on an ambulance when needed Keep up the good work Maggie.
Poor ambulance crews being slated for something beyond their control…
Understandably given the geographical nature of the island,and the underfunding by the government
Just five ambulances a day is surely not enough to support the needs of the Island. It is quoted that the money needed for the said ambulances and their trained crew would be better served with the South Central Ambulance Service which includes Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Sussex – no mention of the Isle of Wight. I am fully aware that the Isle of Wight is in Hampshire but not easily accessible; hence we would dip out yet again.
Crews are responding to 16+ incidents a day on average and the expectation of them is too high. Indeed, more money needs to be put into the Ambulance Service here on the Island, they do a grand job and any more is totally unacceptable.
Hope they are not blaming the ambulance crews for this !
With so many emergencies on the island the bosses should increase the number of ambulances available.
I have in the past used the ambulance service without any issues.
The crews can only handle a number of calls during their shifts they are not able to respond in these ridiculous times with the finite number of ambulances available.
These calls cannot be rushed !
Keep up your good work!
As someone who started on ambulance pts and went frontline over 15 years ago, I’ve seen it deteriorate, become overloaded with admin, closures of 3 island stations, morale is awful, de-skilling of crews just to cut wages, whilst managers pay increases, I’m actively looking for anything else. I’ve seen so many leave over the past few years, stress and depression has definitely increased. It used to be a job for life but I couldn’t recommend it to anyone. The culture in the service is horrible and I’ve had enough. If you’re thinking of training for a degree to do this, I suggest you think very hard because this job is no longer a job for life. Anon.
“Increasing the capacity of the ambulance service here on the Isle of Wight would cost in the region of £1.5million-£1.8million, however, it has been suggested that such funding might better serve the Island by being invested into South Central Ambulance Service – a larger organisation with more capacity which could provide economies of scale and provide a more robust service.”
Does that mean the Island is getting more ambulances or not? Why don’t they just say to give Islanders some assurance? Whatever economies of scale are availability (eg, from administration being in another county), still got to have more ambulances and crew based here. Don’t see economies from regularly ferrying ambulances back and forth across water!
The problem with integrating with south central is the IOW response times are so dire, it would drag south centrals response time down as-well. Which in turn means the powers that be would not keen. Also, IOW is part of the islands trust whereas, south central ambulance is a trust in its own right. This means the iow budget is dependant on ST Mary’s budget but South Central has its own budget. This is how I’ve read it, if I’m mistaken, I’m happy to be corrected. 🙂
I can’t praise the ambulance service on the Island enough.They saved my life in 2018, so I will never run them down. I don’t know anything about the politics behind some of the comments, all I do know is that the more you run the service down, the more demoralised they will become.