AN AMBULANCE service has apologised for patients ‘waiting longer’ for them to respond but demand is at 'unprecedented levels'.

At a Welsh Ambulance Service Trust Board Meeting, members heard of the increasing pressures the service is facing.

Jason Killens, chief executive of the ambulance service, said the service was ‘genuinely seeing unprecedented levels of demand’ they have ‘never, ever seen before even through winter periods’.

There has been a ‘steady trend’ in rising activity from 999 calls right across Wales but this is no different to across the UK which is ‘adding a lot of pressure on services’.

Mr Killens said the number of red demand calls (immediately life-threatening) has ‘pretty much doubled since historic values’ and although there is ‘more work overall’, there is certainly more red coded calls which are ‘more resource intensive’.

He added that this pressure goes ‘some way’ to explaining where they are at with performance response standards.

Emergency department congestion and delays has seen more activity ‘week-on-week’ this year with rising pressures on urgent and emergency care which ‘continues to rise’.

On July 19, the service lost over 500 hours of ambulance production due to delays on the emergency departments.

Mr Killens told members that the additional work and inability to ‘free the fleet’ means there is a ‘stress in response time standards’.

The board heard how the service is continuing to recruit and working on the ‘hear and treat’ service which provides advice over the phone and closing episodes of care.

However, in the short term the service has a ‘challenge in front of them’.

Mr Killens told members that many patients have waited ‘much longer for an emergency ambulance than we would have liked’.

He apologised on behalf of the organisation as patients ‘expect quite rightly’ a timely response, but ‘regrettably’ they have been unable to on occasions due to the extreme pressures.

With warmer weather expected next month, they expect an increase in demand and measures are in place to deal with the expected increase in capacity.

However as a result of this, it is expected people with less serious conditions will have an ‘extended wait’ in the community but staff will do all they can to provide advice and treatment over the phone.

Vice-chair Kevin Davies said this is ‘clearly a really challenging time’ and asked why there was an increase in red coded calls. He asked ‘are people waiting for crisis to happen before they get in touch with any medical service?’

Mr Killens said some increase is driven by a change in the prioritisation system but some is from other ways such as the changing use of healthcare services.

Andy Swinburn said there is ‘more we can do’.

Dr Brendan Lloyd said the vast majority of red coded calls are breathing problems with is correlated with the hot weather and high pollen counts plus not having the routine management of respiratory diseases.

He told members that there are discussions over public messaging as they are aware of an increase in staycations, particularly in North Wales, as visitors have ‘inadequate supplies of medicine’.

He said if people could be referred to urgent care centres it could keep the pressure off of 999 calls and emergency departments.

Mr Killens said that it is ‘regrettable’ people with less serious illnesses have been ‘waiting longer’ but the prioritisation system will send resources to the sickest patients first.

However, concerns were raised over public messaging and whether there will be confusion over what is classed as immediately life-threatening’.

Mr Killens said: “For members of the public, if you’re not sure about what’s wrong with you, despite the stuff we will say on social media, if you are anxious or concerned, make contact through 111 or 999 tell us what’s going on and we will provide advice or response appropriate to your condition.”

Health boards are also looking at what they can do to ease pressures but he urged people to ‘help us to help you’.

Earlier in the day, the Welsh Ambulance Service also held its Annual General Meeting on July 29 where members were told of the ‘extreme and unprecedented’ challenges.

At the AGM, chair Martin Woodford said it was important to reflect on the last year, its achievements and lessons learn and expressed his appreciation to the ‘tireless and heroic’ efforts of staff who placed themselves at ‘personal risk’.

In a video shown to board members, it revealed that from April 1,2020 to March 31, 2021 it was an ‘extraordinary year’ of ‘constant change and evolution’.

A total of 438,426 999 calls were answered by staff at clinical contact centres and 212,150 calls resulted in a patient being conveyed to hospital.

The service conveyed 61.1% of patients to major emergency departments and directed others to more appropriate services or treating them safely at home.

A total of 436,720 journeys were made by non-emergency patient transport services.

Members also heard how 736,616 calls were made to 111 and NHS direct Wales and a staggering 4,300,241 visits were made to the NHS Wales website.

Around 4,113 people were employed within the trust and 703 people were hired with 918 vehicles in the fleet.

When discussing performance and delivery, Lee Brooks, director of operations said the overriding objective is patient safety.