An overwhelmed paramedic has warned New South Wales hospitals are 'hurtling towards a cliff' and being overwhelmed by patients, as he revealed medics have been asking the government for additional support for weeks.
Brett Simpson is a delegate of the Australian Paramedics Association and works on the front lines treating patients as an intensive care paramedic.
The already tough job has been made significantly harder during NSW's relentless Covid outbreak, with hospitals nearing capacity and ambulances forced to treat patients outside - with no more beds left for urgent care.
'With all respect to the premier, we've been begging the government for weeks if not months. It's taking people dying in their homes to spur them into action,' Mr Simpson told The Project on Sunday.
Paramedics are being forced to treat patients outside ERs in car park and in the rain because Covid case loads are causing delays in the system (pictured: RPA hospital on August 1)
As Sydney heads into its 11th week of lockdown, premier Gladys Berejiklian admitted that case numbers will keep going up for the next few weeks, with 1,030 patients already in hospital battling the virus.
Of those, 175 are fighting for life in ICU with 72 breathing through a ventilator.
But with hospitalisations set to peak in October and paramedics and emergency medical staff already being stretched to breaking point, Mr Simpson warned patients may not be able to receive care.
'The resources we've been given to fight this pandemic are like trying to take out a rhino with a Nerf gun. It just doesn't work and we really need some genuine action to help steer us out of this crisis,' he said.
He said the rapid rise in Covid case numbers as Sydney battles a second wave caused by the Delta variant - on top of their regular workload and people putting off treatment of chronic health conditions - was causing significant delays.
'People still have heart attacks and car accidents... We're seeing a lot of closed front doors to emergency departments because out staff literally can't get in,' he added.
'Being left outside to care for patients in the freezing rain for eight or nine hours is just such a struggle.'
'And then to finally get in and see the pressure the nursing staff and the medical staff are under - it's unrelenting.'
He added that he doubted there would be a paramedic or health care worker who wouldn't have a story
