Extreme Pressure

The Newcastle Sunday Sun front page reported that the police and crime commissioners for Northumbria, Cleveland and Durham police forces are concerned at the high number of police resources being used to prop up the ambulance service.  After reading the article two things struck me; first of all the fact that the ambulance service is not only receiving support from the police, both the red cross and St John Ambulance are providing support too; secondly, the ambulance service Chief Executive, Yvonne Ormston, acknowledged the problem and informed the reporter that the ambulance service had declared and maintained a status of 'extreme pressure'.  Additionally, considerable mileage was made over the handover times at hospitals.  This further demonstrates that the whole health economy is suffering 'extreme pressure'.

What exactly is a status of 'extreme pressure'?  More importantly how does the ambulance service respond to such a status?  I wonder if they bring in additional staff on overtime shifts, use senior staff and others from an operational background to help deliver the service?  I imagine from the way it was reported that it is more of a Corporal Jones 'don't panic' situation.  I acknowledge that it is not easy to respond to growing demand when finances are tight, it is easy to say that the government has provided an extra so many million pounds to help.  Quite simply, Yvonne Ormston cannot sit at home on an evening and knit a few paramedics.  Additional funding needs to be programmed into the system to enable organisations to respond, otherwise all we will hear of is a declaration of 'extreme pressure'.


the fundamental question for all political parties to consider is this:  How do we respond to increasing demand for health and social care services with a growing elderly population?   I don't blame the elderly for living longer, hopefully I will be one of their number soon.  This really is the most important question to be answered as we head towards a general election in May.  Whoever wins they will have to deal with 'extreme pressure'.