Labour is pledging to train more doctors and nurses, as new
figures show patients have been left waiting up to 65 HOURS for
an ambulance.
Freedom of Information responses reveal that a ‘category 3’
patient was left waiting for two and a half days for an ambulance
in December, as waiting times soared to the longest on record.
Category 3 patients include those with abdominal pains, in the
late stages of labour, burns and diabetic attacks. The Patients
should be reached with 2 hours according to the NHS, meaning the
patient in the North West was left 32 TIMES longer than they
should have been.
Patients in the East Midlands were waiting for up to 51 hours in
the same month, while patients with conditions like heart attacks
and strokes were not reached for 26 hours in the East Midlands,
and more than 21 hours in both Yorkshire and the South East. The
NHS targets reaching category 2 patients within 18 minutes, but
patients were left waiting 89 TIMES longer than is safe.
Ambulance response times hit record highs this winter, with
patients with conditions like strokes and heart attacks waited an
hour and a half on average in December. 36,000 patients waited
more than three and a half hours in that month alone.
Patients also faced record long waits outside hospitals once
ambulances arrived, due to staff and bed shortages, a separate
FOI found. One patient waited 40 HOURS in the back of an
ambulance outside a hospital in the South West, while patients in
the East of England and West Midlands were waiting 36 hours and
32 hours respectively.
In total this winter, 153,000 patients waited for more than an
hour in the backs of ambulances outside hospitals. NHS bosses
apologised after one patient in Manchester died in the back of an
ambulance in October, having arrived at the hospital three hours
earlier but couldn’t be admitted due to a lack of beds.
, Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary,
said:
“Patients can no longer trust that an ambulance will reach them
in an emergency. Stroke and heart attack victims are left waiting
for hours, when every second counts. This is the terrifying
reality after 13 years of Conservative understaffing of our NHS.
“Patients should be able to phone 999, safe in the knowledge that
they will get an answer and an ambulance when they need it. The
longer we give the Conservatives in office, the longer patients
will wait.
“Labour will launch the biggest expansion of the NHS workforce in
history, training the staff needed to reach patients on time,
paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status. We will ensure the
NHS is there for us when we need it once again.”
Ends
Notes
- Responses to Freedom of Information requests sent to each
ambulance trust in England asked for: The longest ambulance
response time in each category in the Trust in December 2022
- Ambulance response times data
Statistics » Ambulance
Quality Indicators Data 2022-23 (england.nhs.uk)
- Between 14 November and 26 February, 153,000 patients waited
more than an hour in the back of ambulances outside of hospitals
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/uec-sitrep/urgent-and-emergency-care-daily-situation-reports-2022-23/
