February 28, 2001 9:38: AN OVERWORKED telephone operator has accused Bromley Hospital of forcing her to work under "hellish" conditions which she says puts patients' lives at risk.

The woman, who asked not to be named, says she answers thousands of calls every day while being responsible for sending out cardiac arrest calls to doctors and nurses and contacting the fire brigade.

When the £4.10 an hour operator carried out a spot two-hour check on February 19, she found she and her colleague were handling four calls every 30 seconds from members of the public.

The stressed-out worker also said they were so short-staffed, she even had to call a porter to take over her job when she took a break.

She said: "I asked the telephone engineer to tell me how many calls we had made and he told me it was 979 calls in two hours on what was actually a quiet day for us. It really is hell."

"I am terrified I may make a mistake because the work is so stressful and sometimes I don't pay as much attention to calls as I should, there's just no time."

She added: "Moral is very low and I do believe the managers take advantage of us because we are middle aged ladies approaching retirement.

"They pay us virtually nothing and they know we will find it very difficult to find another job."

She added that if more telephonists are not found soon, something terrible could happen.

A spokesman for the Bromley NHS Hospital Trust, Margaret Parker, said: "Staff shortages due to sickness and resignations have occurred over the past months, but locum telephonists are employed to meet operational needs.

"The emergency phone takes priority over other calls and is always manned. There has been no threat to safety."

Chairman of Bromley Community Health Council Patrick Parker said: "Asking staff to cope under this kind of pressure cannot be good for patients, carers and family members.

"The telephonists may not be able to differentiate between serious calls and information seeking."