A GP claims he's had to respond to several emergencies in his "close-knit" community due to delays in paramedics and other NHS staff arriving at the scene. Dr Phil Cox, who works as a locum GP in Port Talbot, said ambulance crews - through no fault of their own - are spending excessive amounts of time stuck outside overcrowded A&E departments unable to offload their patients.
This issue, he fears, could have disastrous consequences for those who need urgent help in their homes and neighbourhoods. He has now set up a fundraising page to buy a defibrillator in the hope of avoiding a "preventable fatality" in the area. The doctor is also hoping to organise a CPR and defibrillator training session once the device is installed to educate locals on emergency first aid.
Read more: Nearly 700 doctors could leave the Welsh NHS due to below-inflation pay rise, union claims
"Everyone in the Welsh Ambulance Service is working incredibly hard under very difficult circumstances, so I don't have any concerns in terms of anyone's work ethic or their commitment to patient care. The simple fact is that the NHS is overwhelmed at the moment and waiting times are considerably sub-optimal," he said.
"We've all seen the images of ambulances stacked outside A&E departments, and that has an impact in terms of patients being seen in the community. Response times are a lot poorer now than they used to be."
According to latest figures, more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the UK every year, and every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces the chance of survival by 10%. Dr Cox said prompt defibrillation could be the difference between life and death.
He added: "The sooner you can get a defibrillator onto somebody, it makes a huge difference to their overall survival rate. In a situation where seconds matter these delays could potentially have a significant impact. As a large proportion of the residents in our local region are over the age of 60, I feel that a community-accessible defibrillator would be an excellent addition to the neighbourhood."
Dr Cox said he's had to act as a "Good Samaritan" and treat people in the community when they should have been seen by other medical professionals. He said people are also choosing not to dial 999 or go to hospital as they don't want to put undue pressure on acute services.
And as a consequence of the NHS' record-breaking waiting times for planned care, he admitted general practice is seeing more patients living with chronic ill-health who - pre-pandemic - would already have been treated in secondary care. "Summer is usually a time when we see a reduction in the number of patients contacting us and that allows us to catch up on the administration side of general practice, including reviewing our palliative patients, undertaking quality improvement audits and making sure people are on the right medications.
"But this year we simply haven't had any kind of downturn in the numbers we would usually see in the summer. It's essentially been like another winter, and that obviously puts huge pressure on practices, patients get frustrated because they can't access services as they would like, and staff feel like they can't take annual leave which is essential to morale and preventing burnout which is contributing to staff leaving the profession."
Dr Cox admitted "a lot" of his colleagues have had to take patients to hospital themselves due to the longer ambulance waiting times - particularly when it comes to cases of children. He added that all areas of the NHS have to work together to resolve these ongoing problems.
"A significant burden has been taken on by the NHS as a result of other services struggling to cope, in particular social care and mental health care," he added.
"Picture a leaking roof: at the moment we're clearing the water out of the kitchen rather than trying to fix the actual problem itself which is the roof. That's how we're tackling the problems with the NHS at the moment."
Another contributing factor, he added, was the issue of pay. In July Health Minister Eluned Morgan agreed to the recommendations of the Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body (DDRB) to increase pay by 4.5% for junior doctors, consultants, GPs and dentists employed directly by health boards. The projected rate of inflation in the UK is almost three times that percentage.
"As much as we work hard and love the job that we do, ultimately we are individuals with our own families and financial commitments. Taking more time away from our families for less and less pay does make people reconsider their position - and also makes staff feel undervalued and disrespected when they are working harder than ever," he added.
Dr Cox said the £2,000 target for the defibrillator has almost been met, with the device being placed on Water Street in Port Talbot once the funding has been secured. He added that The Grand Sultan restaurant has kindly offered to install the defibrillator and contribute towards the costs. To donate please go here.
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