By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter
Wales Ambulance Service Trust (WAS) chief executive, Jason Killens, and operations manager for Powys, Ben Collins, gave details of the new approach to working in the county at a Powys County Council meeting on Thursday.
Back in July, a motion put forward by Plaid Cymru warned of potential cuts to the service in Powys.
Last month, a delegation of Powys councillors met with Mr Killens to discuss their concerns and he highlighted the “extreme pressure” the service had been experiencing this summer.
Mr Killens said: “This summer we have been experiencing much more activity than we would expect to see driven in part for us in Wales particularly in coastal areas by staycations.
“This led to workloads being 30% above what would normally be expected.”
The pandemic is also adding to the burden as Mr Killens explained they were receiving more calls and also having to deal with staff who are sick or having to isolate due to Coronavirus.
Mr Killens told councillors hospital “handovers” were also causing a problem as delays in taking people from ambulances into hospital are increasing.
He said: “These three things coming together are leading to significant pressure for us.”
Wales Ambulance operations manager for Powys, Ben Collins, explained the changes that are being made in Powys following a review of provision which will see more ambulances in the county.
“It’s about getting that additional into the right times where we are expecting higher call volume.”
Mr Collins explained that during the highest call hours of 8am to midnight between five to eight ambulances could be on call in Montgomeryshire while in the quieter period of 2am to 7am there would be three. He added that staff were now staggering shift start times.
Mr Collins said: “We don’t want all crews starting at 7am and finishing at 7pm.
“By staggering by half an hour across the stations this gives us a more robust response model.
“Machynlleth will remain 24/7, Llanfyllin and Llanidloes will both have two ambulances covering peak times, between 8am to 2am, and an additional ambulance will be in Newtown covering the peak times.
“Alongside the review we are in talks with the Powys Teaching Health Board to come up with a rural health care model.”
He added that fire service first responders had been reintroduced and that they were planning to increase the number of volunteer first responders in the community, to provide “greater resilience and earlier first aid and life support care”.