As the NHS grapples with its biggest summer crisis ever, people with heart attacks and strokes who call for an ambulance may have to wait several hours before being seen.
The West Midlands Ambulance Service has issued a warning that it is “under substantial pressure” and that callers in category 2 may have to wait “many hours.”
The post noted that call handlers may experience “tough talks” with desperate callers, adding that “support will be provided for workers.”
Later tonight, an investigation will reveal how ambulances are forced to wait outside hospitals for up to twenty hours before receiving patients.
According to NHS guidelines, paramedics should be able to transfer patients to A&E within 15 minutes of their arrival.
Emergency rooms are busier than they have ever been at this time of year as a result of Covid, staff absences, and increased admissions caused by the heatwave.
It comes after yesterday’s release of data indicating that average ambulance response times for heart attack and stroke callouts are now nearly three times the NHS’s goals.
This week, West Midlands Ambulance Service instructed 999 call-takers to inform the public that crews may take “many hours” to respond to category two incidents, such as heart attacks and strokes. The NHS goal for these occurrences is 18 minutes.
In June, these patients waited for an average of more than 50 minutes for an ambulance, despite the NHS target of 18 minutes or less for these types of crises.
Earlier this week, ambulance services across England were placed on ‘black’ alert, signifying they are under ‘severe pressure’ due to the rising problem.
The head of the ambulance service has urged sick Britons to only dial 999 in life-threatening situations and to stop calling back to enquire where the ambulance is.
One ambulance at Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital had to wait 11 hours before being unloaded.
At one time, twenty ambulances were waiting outside the hospital to transfer patients, and automobiles were forced to park in an overflow lot.
However, South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust wait times are considerably longer.
At Worcestershire Royal, Heartlands, and Royal Shrewsbury hospitals, paramedics waited over 16 hours, over 18 hours, and over 20 hours, respectively.
One paramedic, speaking anonymously to Newsnight, described the emotional cost of getting to crises too late.
“It would be inaccurate to claim that I have never shed a tear,” they remarked.
There have unquestionably been instances in which we should have intervened earlier to prevent further harm.
There have been countless instances of Brits anxiously attempting to save individuals while waiting for a late-arriving ambulance.
In January, Naomi Rees-Issitt of Warwickshire stated that her son Jamie died of a heart arrest due to ambulance delays.
Jamie was 18 years old when he died.
As a category one emergency, the NHS should have dispatched an ambulance within seven minutes.
However, they arrived 17 minutes and 30 seconds later.
At the time of the request for assistance for Jamie, 17 of the 32 ambulances in the area were either en route to hospitals or waiting outside to receive patients.
Six of these ambulances had been waiting for more than an hour at a hospital.
Ms. Rees-Issitt was scheduled to meet with former Health Secretary Sajid Javid to address ambulance response times, however, the meeting was canceled due to his resignation just before the Conservative leadership election.
She told Newsnight, “We’re back to square one because Sajid Javid resigned.”
It’s very disheartening after we’ve spent the last six months trying to organize this meeting.
A representative for The West Midlands Ambulance Service told Newsnight, “Once the investigation is complete, Jamie’s family will also receive a supplementary report.”
The most recent NHS data indicate that calls for the most urgent cases, such as Jamie’s, have increased by a third over the past few months, with the typical category one patient now waiting nine minutes for paramedics, compared to the aim of seven minutes.
The problem is exacerbated by hospitals’ inability to discharge tens of thousands of recuperating patients into social care, according to Adrian Boyle, the incoming president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
He stated that emergency corridors are typically crowded anyway.
Better would be if we could discharge patients from hospitals, free up space in emergency rooms, and allow hand ambulances to efficiently transfer patients.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care stated that the Government had updated hospital discharge instructions for the National Health Service and local councils to “ensure smooth discharges across the health and social care sectors.”
In June, more than 22,000 Britons waited more than 12 hours in A&E before being seen, highlighting the strain on the National Health Service.
The monthly performance statistics of the health service reveal the crisis in emergency rooms as medics contend with rising Covid hospital and staff absenteeism, extra admissions induced by the heatwave, and pandemic backlogs.
In May, the most recent month for which data is available, the NHS backlog for regular operations increased from 6,4 million to 6,6 million, suggesting that one in eight individuals in England are now waiting for elective care, often in pain.
Despite a government vow to eliminate two-year delays by the end of the month, the number of individuals waiting more than a year has increased to 331,000, and more than 8,000 long-haulers have been in waiting for more than two years.
