BBC Breakfast presenter Jon Kay halted the show to bring viewers the latest breaking news following a critical incident with the Welsh Ambulance Service. He was joined on the programme by Jason Killen from Wiltshire, the Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service.
The “breaking news” banner popped up at the bottom of the screen reading: “Welsh Ambulance Service Critical Incident. 340 calls waiting to be answered last night,” as Jason dialled in via video to urge people to only contact 999 if absolutely essential.
Jason was appearing on the programme to issue a stark warning to the people of Wales that there simply wasn’t enough support on the ground due to large volumes of calls and they still had a huge backlog of around 90 ambulances with people still waiting to be handed over to hospitals.
“The pressure for us continues this morning, we had a very very busy day yesterday with increases with 999 calls but also pressure across the urgent and emergency care system in the NHS meant that our ambulances were delayed and with some departments not handing over their patients for very long periods,” Jason explained to Jon.
The Ambulance Service were issuing a plea to the local community to only dial 999 in an emergency while also sending apologies to those people who had been effected by the huge delays and backlog that continues on New Years Eve.
BBC Breakfast host Jon Kay halted the show to bring viewers the latest breaking news following a critical incident with the Welsh Ambulance Service
(Image: (Image: BBC))
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Jason said on-air: “I wanted to apologise to patients who waited too long yesterday and today and continued to wait this morning and thank our teams for providing the best service and really what they could in the difficult circumstances this winter.”
Wanting to know more on the situation, Jon quizzed: “We were hearing yesterday that there were 340 people waiting for their 999 calls to be picked up are we going to see anything like that today again?”
The CEO told him: “That’s right and that pressure continues all morning and overnight we’ve had similar amounts of patients waiting far too long and much longer than we would like.”
Jon spoke to Jason Killen, the Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service
(Image: BBC)
He continued: “That pressure continues today and I suspect that that will continue through to this evening and into the early part of the new year of course it’s always busier today and we are ready for additional activity and additional 999 calls this evening and people can help us this evening by of course having a good time but drink sensibly and eating before they go out and looking after their friends.”
Jason urged: “The public can help us by being sensible this evening if they are out celebrating also using their ambulance and emergency service wisely and only calling us in. A genuine emergency.”
Having listened to the stark situation, Jon couldn’t help but feel a bit worried for people in genuine emergencies today. He responded: That is scary isn’t it. For people who might be in that position, they might be with a loved one who’s having a heart attack or something… and to know that they might call 999 and be in a queue of more than 300 people.”
Jason issued a plea to the public
(Image: BBC)
Not trying to skim over the severity, the chief executive added reassurance that they would try to help those most sick. He told Jon: “That’s right but we always prioritise every emergency call that we receive and always respond to the sickest patients first but this pressure across the health system due to flu and covid and other respiratory virus circulating through the winter mean that there is a backlog of patients into the hospitals and emergency departments.
“Meaning that our ambulances can’t off-load their patients when they arrive and they are delayed at those emergency departments and that then means we can’t get those ambulances to respond to patients in communities.”
BBC Breakfast airs weekdays on BBC1, from 6am