Political opinion with Alison Bennett MP: Paramedic during a permacrisis

Last week, following an introductory meeting with South East Coast Ambulance Service CEO Simon Weldon, I got shown round the Gatwick Make Ready Centre by the team stationed there. I got the opportunity to join paramedics Luke and Des on an ambulance ride out, attending to 999 calls across Sussex and Surrey. It was humbling to see how the team work together to carry out their important and often life-saving work across the region. I learnt so much from just a few hours on the frontline in the ambulance with Luke and Des, watching them in action as they attended to patients in genuine need.

Paramedics play a vital role in our NHS, working on the front lines in emergency situations. However, their job, as well as the work of everyone within the NHS, has become increasingly complicated as the annual ‘winter crisis’ becomes a ‘permacrisis’, with health services feeling the pressure all year round, even in the summer months.

NHS figures reveal that there were 57,666 visits to A&E at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust during June and July this year, compared to 23,587 a decade ago. Long waits in local hospitals have also been soaring, with 785 people recorded to have waited 12 hours of longer for admission at local hospitals through the summer. In comparison, these ‘trolley waits’ were virtually non-existent in 2015, with no waits of more than 12 hours recorded during that summer.

These waits can have serious consequences; according to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, 16,600 deaths were linked to long A&E waits before admission in 2024. We must do better; for patients in Mid Sussex, and for the NHS workers who are dealing with this ‘permacrisis’.

To fight this, we need to increase vaccine uptake for seasonal illnesses, expand access to pharmacies, and increasing access to out-of-hours GPs. Actions such as these would take pressure off stretched A&E waiting rooms and protect patients. Of course, we need to go further, and this starts with tackling the broken social care system. But something needs to be done immediately so that our health service can get through the winter.

The Labour government needs to wake up and see that nothing will change until we create a health and social care system that meets the needs of an ageing population.