PARAMEDICS are worried about response times as they face increasing pressures.

Last year, Peter Mulvaney, 56, was at the Hungry Inn in Caia Park when he collapsed without warning and stopped breathing.

A quick-thinking customer recognised that the father-of-four was in cardiac arrest and began CPR, while takeaway staff called 999.

Welsh Ambulance Service crews arrived within minutes to take over.

However, senior paramedic Sally Bottomley worries that due to the high levels of demand and pressures the service is facing, if a call came in like that now, the waiting time would be much longer.

She said: “The cardiac arrest last year was one of the first we attended in full PPE. We managed to get him back and he was so grateful.

“Back then we could respond so quickly, we really were there in minutes and we saved his life. If we got a call like that now, I couldn’t guarantee we would get there on time.”

Equipment is having to be cleaned after use, cars are having to be deep cleaned if Covid-contaminated, thousands of calls are being made to 999 weekly and ambulances are stuck outside of the hospital for hours due to increased waiting times.

All of these are causing a spiral of increasing pressures, which is worryingly ahead of the winter months.

Sally said for one shift, she was outside of the Maelor for seven hours in an ambulance for patient handover when she could have been out responding to other emergency calls.

Rooms in the Maelor are filling fast, from A&E waiting room to resuscitation, there is little ‘give-way’ space.