Ambulance response times in East of England now some of the worst on record
The average response time to life threatening incidents in the East of England is now around 12 minutes
Ambulance response times in the East of England are now some the worst on record, according to new figures.
The data from NHS England shows the average response time in December for ambulances dealing with the most urgent incidents, such as cardiac arrest, was 11 minutes and 54 seconds in East Anglia.
This is set against a target of seven minutes.
Ambulances in England also took an average of two hours and six minutes in December to respond to emergency calls such as strokes, heart attacks and sepsis.
This is well above the target of 18 minutes.
It comes a day after up to 25,000 ambulance workers walked out on strike in a dispute with the Government over pay.
Workers at the East of England Ambulance Service weren't involved in that walkout, but they are being re-balloted on the question of future walkouts.
More NHS strikes are scheduled, with nurses due to walk out at several hospital trusts in the East of England next Wednesday and Thursday.
Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the King's Fund, said there was "no shying away from the reality that the NHS is deep in crisis", adding: "Since modern records began, A&E performance is the worst it has ever been and not a single NHS trust in the country is managing to meet the national target to be seen within four hours.
"While there are huge delays in admitting patients, there are also serious issues in discharging patients - with over 13,000 people stuck in hospital despite being medically fit to leave.
"Meanwhile, the waiting list for planned hospital care remains stubbornly over seven million and cancer services are also under pressure, which underlines the challenge in meeting the Government's latest pledge to reduce waiting lists by the end of 2023."
He said that while a cash injection was welcomed, the Government must think longer term and bring forward a timeline for its plan to increase the workforce.
Tim Gardner, senior policy fellow at the Health Foundation, said the data showed the "NHS is facing an emergency but the roots of this lie in political choices made over the last decade, not the cold weather or seasonal flu".
He said 347,707 people in 2022 spent more than 12 hours in A&E waiting for a hospital bed, which is "over four times as many 12-hour trolley waits as in the previous 10 years put together."
He added: "Waits for cancer treatment reached new highs in 2022, while the waiting list for routine operations is 7.2 million.
"Behind these numbers are patients left in pain, people enduring unnecessary suffering and, in some cases, lives tragically lost...
"The pressures on the NHS result from a decade of underinvestment in the NHS and other public services, a failure to address chronic staff shortages, raiding capital budgets and the longstanding neglect of adult social care."
The new data shows 61% of the record 16,296 cancer patients who had their first treatment in November after an urgent referral by their GP had waited less than two months - up from 60.3% the previous month but well below the 85% target.
In better news, a record 264,391 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England in November, the highest number in records going back to 2009.
Cancer Research UK chief executive Michelle Mitchell said the figures "paint an extremely troubling picture for people affected by cancer", adding: "The last time all targets for cancer waiting times were met was as far back as 2015, and the number of people waiting for diagnosis and treatment remains unacceptably high.
"It can be easy to get lost in statistics - but each one of those numbers represents someone's child, parent, partner, sibling or friend."
NHS England said a record number of tests and checks were delivered by staff in November (2,172,150 - up from 2,055,449 in October), while the NHS dealt with a record number of patients attending A&E in December (2,283,196) and call handlers answered more 999 calls than ever before.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: "The NHS is in the biggest crisis in its history.
"The terrifying truth is that patients in an emergency can no longer be sure the NHS will be there for them."