| It’s understood a combination of sickness, holidays and long-term absences have caused severe problems for management in their efforts to cover shifts, although swine flu is not believed to be a contributory factor.
The Scottish Ambulance Service has confirmed the staffing shortages, but has stressed it has not caused any significant effect on their emergency-response times.
Sources say the situation reached alarming levels last week when three ambulances had to be left in the yard as there were not enough staff to send out on routine or emergency missions.
It’s understood crews are being asked to work long overtime hours and, while technicians and paramedics have been doing so regularly, management have been unable to fully cover every shift with the available personnel.
It’s also thought that, while emergency call-outs have been largely unaffected, some non-urgent missions, including patient transfers, have suffered delays, and others have had to be cancelled or postponed.
A spokesperson for the service said, “There has been an unusually high instance of absence due to sickness recently.
“However, this has not had a significant effect on our ability to respond to 999 calls in Dundee, where the average response time for life-threatening calls in the city is currently six minutes.” |
