Ambulances too slow to 999 calls

[Northerner]

Ambulance services are struggling to reach seriously ill and injured patients quickly enough after rising demand has left the system at breaking point, a BBC investigation has found.

Patients with life-threatening conditions - like cardiac arrests - are meant to be reached in eight minutes.

But only one of the UK's 13 ambulance services is currently meeting its target.

Ambulance bosses are blaming rising demand and pressure in the system.

Freedom of information requests by the BBC to ambulance trusts showed over 500,000 hours of ambulance crews' time in England, Wales and Northern Ireland was lost queuing for more than the 15 minute target at A&E waiting for hospital staff to hand over their patients to - a rise of 52% in two years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38077409

 

[grovesy]

They are covering this morning on BBC breakfast and having live feeds from Northumberland ambulance call centre,they have just taken a call from someone whoose called because there toenail has fallen off, they said they reffered them to an urgent care centre. They also currently dealing with a road accident, and a cardiac arrest.

 

[Owen]

EMAS utilise emergency responders and record the attendance from when a responder arrives. This typically 6-7 minutes. The problem is compounded in rural areas due to long distances and A&E closures. Ambulance journeys to say someone near Grantham, can take an ambulance out of service for an additional hour and half due to the distance to Lincoln, then they are held up due the added wait to hand over at A&E. Plus within this area 4 GP practices have closed leaving 11000 people looking for a new GP. But don't worry because in 2021 it will all be fixed.