An ambulance technician was close to tears as he described having to don PPE before performing CRP on ‘dead’ patients to the Covid Inquiry today [Tuesday].
GMB also rep outlines:
- living in budget hotel to keep family safe
- fears over out of date equipment
- ordering pizza to ambulance registration during ten hour wait outside hospital ‘just so they can eat’
An ambulance technician was close to tears as he described having to don PPE before performing CRP on ‘dead’ patients to the Covid Inquiry today [Tuesday].
Mark Tilley, who works for South East Coast Ambulance Service, outlined how he and dozens of colleagues moved into a budget hotel so they could attend the front line of the pandemic without putting their families’ in danger.
Due to social distancing measures, crews would do a ten hour shift in an ambulance, then be locked in a hotel room for 12 hours with ‘nowhere to go...just to mull over what you’d been seeing....the poor patients.’
During ten hour waits outside hospitals, Mr Tilley and his colleagues were forced to ord er pizza to the registration of the ambulance ‘so they had something to eat that day’.
Mr Tilley, a GMB rep, was overcome by emotion on more than one occasion as he gave evidence to the enquiry.
Rather than attend emergencies already dressed in PPE, bosses forced them don protective gear once they’d arrived, costing a potentially crucial minute and a half before treating patients.
Mark Tilley said:
“Turning up and people's houses where someone was unfortunately dead inside the front window or on the pathway up to their property.
“And I’ve got out of the vehicle and I would have normally gone over and started bouncing up and down on their chest. [to perform CPR]
“But we went and got our masks and suits on and all of that – that plays on my mind all the time.
“Would I do it again? Yes
He added:
“For me, you can't change history no matter what you talk about, it’s history. We can’t change it.
“But what we can do is learn from it. We can...make sure it doesn’t repeat again or at least we’ve looked at everything and made an informed decision.
”But all we’re seeing at the moment is it’s reverted to what it was before.”
