The good fight: lessons from the pandemic

I love the job, I just hate the politics. After 2 years of feeling like I am on a sinking ship constantly trying to plug holes while taking on water—call to call, patient to patient—it is easy to see why so many become disheartened, why so many look to other avenues outside the daily grind of the ambulance service, or why some leave the profession entirely. This narrative is nothing new, the ambulance service, and indeed the NHS has faced relentless pressures for a number of years now—but as we finally emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that something is different. As a newly qualified paramedic (NQP), I am starting to see this manifest in longer waits outside hospital, delayed response times to our sickest patients, and even some patients dying in the back of ambulances while they wait countless hours to be triaged. For the first time in my career as a paramedic, I cannot help but feel that, despite my best efforts, I am failing my patients.