PARAMEDICS have been called out to increasing numbers of mental health emergencies and suicides during the pandemic, according to the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Call-outs for mental health issues have risen by 9% during the pandemic and now account for 6% of the total 999 calls to the ambulance service.

But despite the emergency service’s workload falling by almost a third at points 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 who are struggling mentally with the restrictions that have been in place.

“I know that a number of my colleagues have responded to increased calls for deaths by suicide.”

Asked about the impact on paramedics, she added: “It’s certainly been very challenging.

“We are no different from wider society in terms of the struggles that we face as human beings.

“But also in work, we will respond to the people who are acutely unwell – whether that’s 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.”