Ambulance half-hour wait times go up 58% under coalition

[Northerner]

The number of ambulances waiting outside accident and emergency departments for more than half an hour has gone up by 58% under the coalition, figures reveal, providing further evidence of a crisis in the NHS.

Nearly 99,000 ambulances were delayed for 30 minutes last year ? 37,000 more than in 2010-11. The College of Emergency Medicine (CEM) has said it is unsafe to leave patients in ambulances for more than 15 minutes. The figures will increase concern about the state of the country's A&E departments, said by senior doctors in recent days to be like "war zones". Last week Dr Cliff Mann, a registrar at CEM, which represents A&E doctors, said the emergency care system had reached "a tipping point", with many A&E units overwhelmed by the numbers of patients arriving.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/12/ambulance-wait-times-up-coalition

 

[ypauly]

And what would the effect have been if Labour won the election and kept their promise to cut the NHS budgte by ?20 Billion?