Lives are being lost in UK due to record ambulance delays

Lives are being lost in UK due to record ambulance delays

Lives are being lost in UK due to record ambulance delays. Credit: Twitter

Patients are being put at “risk” and lives are being lost due to record ambulance delays in the UK.

Patients are being put at “risk” and lives are being lost due to record ambulance delays in the UK as shocking data reveals the average wait response is now triple the target for the NHS.

Statistics from NHS England shows it took crews almost 55 minutes to respond to Category 2 calls in October. Frighteningly, this includes strokes, heart attacks and severe burns.

Last month, record delays in the most urgent incidents such as cardiac arrests and life-threatening accidents also had record delays. It took paramedics an average of nine minutes and 20 seconds to respond to Category 1 calls – this is far above the seven-minute target.

The data comes after reports of elderly people in Britain having to wait as long as 14 hours for an ambulance and deaths of patients in parked ambulances due to A&E departments being overwhelmed.

Ambulance bosses have said the cause for the delays are due to a backlog because of Covid and social distancing rules in emergency departments.

Data today, November 11, also revealed that the NHS had a record 1,012,143 calls to 999 last month – however, those who called had to wait an average of 56 seconds for an answer.

This is a 700 per cent rise in waiting times for the call to be answered in comparison to October 2020, when operators took an average of just seven seconds to answer emergency calls.

Other data shows the NHS waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has reached 5.83million, marking the eleventh month in a row that the figure has hit a record high.

Richard Webber, of the College of Paramedics and a working paramedic, told the BBC that staff “have never before experienced anything like this at this time of the year.”

He added: “Everyday services are holding hundreds of 999 calls with no-one to send.”

“The ambulance service is simply not providing the levels of service they should – patients are waiting too long and that is putting them at risk.”

The data comes as ambulances elsewhere in the UK are also struggling. In Scotland, the distressing case of Richard Brown who died after waiting five hours for an ambulance has been highlighted.


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Written by

Laura Kemp

Originally from UK, Laura is based in Axarquia and is a writer for the Euro Weekly News covering news and features. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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