MORALE has been described as ‘horrendous’ for paramedics in Dorset, who are responding to unprecedented levels of 999 calls.

This comes after the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) recorded the highest call levels in its history, sickness levels are on the increase and there’s a shortage of frontline paramedics.

Added to these problems, handover delays at hospitals in the south west increased to 1,834 hours during December.

The service’s concerns were announced by directors at the trust’s board meeting yesterday. The board heard how the response times to Red 1 and Red 2 incidents – the most serious life threatening cases – were below the national targets in December and the situation was not forecasted to improve before March 2015.

In England, paramedics are required to attend 75 per cent of Red 1 and Red 2 incidents in eight minutes. In Dorset, during December the service reached only 64 per cent of Red 2 incidents in eight minutes and attended 82.5 per cent of Red 1 incidents. 

During the meeting, directors heard that the number of calls in December 2014 was ‘significantly higher than planned’, with unprecedented demand seen across the trust for the six-week period from the end of November to the first week of January 2015. The number of A&E incidents in December reached 81,079 in the south west – a 16.24 per cent increase on the previous year.

A Dorset paramedic, who wished not to be named, said: “For frontline paramedics and practitioners morale is dangerously low with some colleagues close to burn-out.”

He said the targets are unattainable, stressful and put pressure on the paramedics, which is detrimental to their function as an emergency medic.

A spokesperson for SWASFT denied this and stated: “There are times when ambulance crews work beyond the end of their shift. This is not due to a lack of resources but is due to the high levels of demand across the area and the need to allocate crews to high priority incidents.”

When asked about staff morale, the spokesman added: “The views of one or two staff are not representative of the organisation. SWASFT recognises that staff are working incredibly hard under considerable pressure.”