Ambulance delays left almost 40,000 at risk last month
Ambulance delays meant almost 40,000 patients could have come to harm last month, data has suggested as the NHS continues to experience significant pressures.
National figures published by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), show some 39,000 patients could have come to harm in July after experiencing handover delays of more than an hour.
The figure is up 11 per cent on the previous month, when 34,000 patients were potentially harmed.
Hours lost to 15-minute handover delays outside hospitals reached 152,000 in July, while 46,089 handovers took more than an hour, the data show.
AACE also reported that call answering times were the slowest on record last month, with the average time a 999 call was answered exceeding one minute for the first time.
In July, it took 64 seconds on average for 999 ambulance calls to be answered – almost double the June average of 28 seconds.
Members of the public have reported waiting up to 15 minutes for emergency calls to be picked up.
One man wrote on Twitter: “Fifteen minutes to answer the 999 call. Said four-hour wait for an ambulance. Drove my son to hospital instead. Arrived here [at] 10.30pm and it’s now 4am and he still hasn’t been seen. And most likely another four hours before he does.”
Another said: “Last night I had to call 999 and was put in a queue for over five minutes – ended up giving up.”
The West Midlands Ambulance Service revealed that 68 people have died since April as a result of ambulance delays and that in some cases patients are waiting up to 17 hours for an ambulance.
Murry MacGregor, a spokesman for the service, told ITV News that patients are waiting longer to be admitted to A&E because hospitals cannot discharge patients quickly enough to free up beds.
East Midlands Ambulance Service said it has had 30 serious incidents in the year to date, compared to 17 in the previous year. Serious incidents can include unexpected or avoidable death or injury because of a delayed response.
The service said it remained “concerned” by the increasing number of serious incidents related to delayed ambulance responses. Twelve serious incidents were reported in June and July, according to a report by its chief executive, published this week. Six of those related to “delayed response/prolonged waits”.
Earlier this week, The Telegraph reported a case in Cornwall of a 90-year-old woman waiting 40 hours for an ambulance.
In Worcester, an 11-year-old boy who impaled himself on the handlebar of his bike was told it would be a two-hour wait for an ambulance, his family claimed.
Jayden Blann pierced his groin after falling off his bike, the Metro reported. His family ended drove him to A&E after a 999 call handler said his case was not the highest priority for an ambulance.
