BBC show sheds light on ambulance service in Cumbria

The BBC show 'Ambulance' focuses on the life-saving work of paramedics and NHS control rooms across the UK.

Last week's episode, which aired on March 20, followed the journey of Peter, a man who required hospital attention following a heart condition in the fallout of having Covid-19.

However, due to a fault with the emergency vehicle, the nearest crew in Kendal was not able to assist him.

As a result, a team in Lancaster, 22 miles and half an hour away from Peter's home, were drafted in to reach him.

Peter being assisted by the Lancaster ambulance crew (Image: BBC)

The show took a keen interest in wait times at hospitals in the region, which meant Peter was forced to be taken back to Lancaster instead of Westmorland General.

Because he had indications of sepsis, Peter was seen straight away upon arrival - though this was not the case for most people in the northwest.

At the same time as his treatment, wait times in Lancaster for ambulance crews to hand over their patients stood at 41 minutes.

This attributed to 70 ambulances in the northwest being stuck outside hospitals instead of being available to respond to an influx of emergency calls.

The ambulance crew arriving at Peter's home in Kendal (Image: BBC)

Over the course of the same day, control rooms in the area dealt with 2,565 calls during the day shift alone.

The following day, the show touched on an incident between Barrow and Millom when a person on the tracks brought train services in the area to a standstill.

Dispatcher Graham's job was shown to highlight the problems facing control rooms, with a lack of concrete information limiting the response that could be provided.

With a tough start to his shift, he said: "The NHS runs on caffeine every day, not just today."