Paramedics cannot attend health emergencies because they are stuck queueing outside a hospital
This is a public service announcement: if you are one of the 5.6 million people in the West Midlands on 17 August, don’t have a heart attack or a stroke. The chances are that no one will arrive in an ambulance to help you. Unbelievable as it might sound, this warning was delivered last month to those served by the region’s NHS ambulance service. It’s not a one-off. The BBC reported on the case of Kenneth Shadbolt, 94, who waited more than five hours after a bad fall – an accident that proved fatal. The scandal is compounded by the deaths of patients in ambulances that have been kept waiting outside NHS hospital emergency departments.
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, last week tried to blame the collapse in the service on the pandemic. But the public isn’t buying it. More than half those interviewed in a poll the same week said record ambulance waiting times were the government’s fault. The data clearly points to a problem: the average ambulance response time for category two calls – those for serious conditions – is 40 minutes in England. This is more than double the 18-minute target. One in 10 is kept waiting almost an hour and a half. There is a Covid-19 hangover. But there is also an increased demand from patients presenting with serious illnesses, and greater numbers of people calling an ambulance because they cannot get through to a more appropriate service such as their GP.
