New figures from the Scottish Ambulance Service show paramedics are dealing with an increasing number of mental health emergencies and suicides because of the pandemic.
Callouts for mental health issues have risen by nine per cent during the pandemic and now account for six per cent of all 999 calls to the ambulance service.
And despite the callouts in general falling by almost a third during the lockdown, response times have been slower by every measure, Holyrood’s Health Committee heard.
Paramedic Gail Topping told MSPs: “We are certainly responding to a lot more people struggling mentally with the restrictions in place.
“I know a number of my colleagues have responded to increased calls for deaths by suicide. It’s certainly been very challenging.
“We are no different from wider society in terms of the struggles we face as human beings, but in work we respond to people who are acutely unwell - whether physically or mentally unwell – and with the enhanced PPE, sometimes the human interaction has been lost.
“Part of my care of a patient would be to hold someone’s hand, reassure them and perhaps even give a hug, and a lot of that has been lost.”
In her evidence to the committee, SAS chief executive Pauline Howie said the emergency service’s workload fell by approximately 30 per cent during the first lockdown.
The easing of restrictions during the summer saw a rise in demand, which has fallen again during the latest lockdown.
She said the SAS has faced “challenges” to maintain response times for callouts “because of the enhanced infection prevention and control arrangements”.
Lyndsay Lauder from the service added: “Our response times this year have increased across all the different categories and that’s because of the additional time for doffing and donning of equipment, or cleaning of the vehicles and ambulances, in between patients is more intensive than previously.”
Medical director Dr Jim Ward also said there have been “unhelpful and unsatisfactory” delays for some patients waiting for ambulances, explaining there had been knock-on effects from changes at hospitals.
He said: “Often things go exceptionally well, particularly for our most critically ill patients who we have to pre-alert and go straight to resuscitation.
“Generally, our experience of that has been very positive.
“However, the reality of working within the COVID-19 restrictions have huge pressures on the front door of hospitals in terms of the changes to the way in which patients are processed and queued.
“That has resulted on occasion - and particularly in the more recent wave - in hospitals experiencing delays being able to process our patients.”
