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Patients occupy been left waiting up to 65 hours for an ambulance in England – whereas one affected person waited in the assist of an ambulance for 40 hours outside A&E.
Information mute by Labour from Freedom of Information requests inform lengthy waits for ambulances and folk waiting hours outside hospitals waiting to be admitted to A&E this winter.
Half of of NHS ambulance trusts in England answered to the count on, and worst waiting instances incorporated:
• A affected person in the North West who waited 65 hours, 38 minutes and 13 seconds in December for a response to a category 3 name – pressing nonetheless now now not straight lifestyles-threatening and ought to be reached within two hours in 90% of cases
• Waits after category 2 calls – which is in a situation to encompass coronary heart attack and stroke victims – in the West Midlands and Yorkshire incorporated sufferers left waiting for more than 21 hours rather then the 18-minute arrangement
• A category 2 in the East Midlands was more than 26 hours in December – the longest wait for such extreme symptoms
• One affected person who waited 40 hours in the assist of an ambulance outside a sanatorium in the South West due to workers and bed shortages
• A affected person in the East of England with a virtually 36-hour wait
• One other in the West Midlands who had to wait for 32 hours in the assist of an ambulance
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting mentioned: “Patients can now now not believe that an ambulance will reach them in an emergency.
“Stroke and coronary heart attack victims are left waiting for hours, when every second counts.”
Ambulance workers occupy been placing over pay and prerequisites
NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, mentioned the figures inform last winter was “no doubt one of the most toughest on document for the NHS” and the authorities’s lengthy-term workforce thought “can not advance a minute too shortly”.
On moderate, folk waiting for a category 2 response in December waited one hour, 32 minutes and 54 seconds, the NHS England records showed.
Within the intervening time, 36,000 category 2 sufferers waited for ambulances for more than three and a half of hours in December.
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January saw a mammoth boost, with the moderate response time reducing to 39 minutes and 33 seconds – nonetheless that was still great higher than the 18-minute arrangement.
However from 1 December to 28 February, 129,023 folk waited more than an hour in ambulances outside hospitals.
Mr Streeting added: “Here is the horrible fact after 13 years of Conservative understaffing of our NHS.
“Patients ought to be in a situation to mobile phone 999, safe in the records that they’ll uncover an acknowledge and an ambulance when they need it. The longer we support the Conservatives relatively than industrial, the longer sufferers will wait.
“Labour will launch the finest growth of the NHS workforce in history, coaching the staff wished to reach sufferers on time, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax region. We are able to make certain the NHS is there for us when we need it one more time.”
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‘Very aggravating December’ for ambulance carrier
NHS Providers chief executive Sir Julian Hartley mentioned: “Have confidence leaders will likely be very concerned by these wait instances as guaranteeing successfully timed, fine quality care for sufferers is their top priority.
“The causes of lengthy ambulance waits are advanced. Excessive demand – continuously at its worst in winter – along with overstretched capability and gigantic workforce shortages all make a contribution.”
Ambulance workers occupy agreed a pay tackle the authorities after a series of strikes
A Conservative Occasion spokesman accused Labour of “throwing stones in glass properties” and mentioned the occasion also can just still “open fixing the mess they occupy got made in Wales”.
A Division of Effectively being and Social Care spokeswoman mentioned: “No person also can just still occupy to wait longer than fundamental to entry pressing and emergency care and we are working now now not easy to increase ambulance waiting instances, which occupy substantially decreased from the peak of winter pressures in December 2022.
“Our Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Blueprint will permit folk to be seen faster by scaling up neighborhood teams, expanding digital wards, and getting 800 new ambulances on the avenue.
“Here is on top of £750m now we occupy supplied this winter to tempo up sanatorium discharge and free up beds.”