EXCLUSIVE: Data reveals the long waits to get through to Yorkshire Ambulance on 999

We can exclusively reveal Yorkshire Ambulance call handlers are taking more than 20 minutes to answer some 999 calls - with the longest taking over half an hour.

Data we obtained from the service reveals between January and September this year, more than 100,000 calls took longer than one minute to answer.

The longest was in July when somebody waited 36 minutes for a call handler to pick up.

“You would expect within seconds really to be speaking to someone, so the fact it looks to be pretty common to be waiting for many minutes is quite extraordinary,” says John Puntis, a former consultant paediatrician and co-chair of Keep our NHS Public.

“This is a reflection of the huge pressures the ambulance service is under.”

The data below reveals the longest time it took for Yorkshire Ambulance call handlers to answer a 999 call each month:

Jan-22 - 00:15:27

Feb-22 - 00:08:38

Mar-22 - 00:12:56

Apr-22 - 00:21:16

May-22 - 00:06:46

Jun-22 - 00:36:31

Jul-22 - 00:20:11

Aug-22 - 00:25:06

Sep-22 - 00:16:08

The data also reveals how many callers waited longer than one minute to get through:

Jan-22 - 5,650

Feb-22 - 1,995

Mar-22 - 12,502

Apr-22 - 15,297

May-22 - 2,922

Jun-22 - 9,850

Jul-22 - 26,966

Aug-22 - 17,554

Sep-22 - 18,994

The Trust which runs the service told us there is no minimum staffing requirement in the call-handling centre, and staffing is worked out depending on the predicted demand for each hour.

John, who is also Chair of the Leeds Keep Our NHS Public group, says it all feeds into a much wider problem of the health service being under-resourced.

“It starts with underinvestment and lack of social care," he said.

“That’s why you have around 10- to 12,000 patients in hospital who are well enough medically to go home but who cannot be discharged because of lack of community support.

“That means patients in A&E who need to go to the ward can’t be moved because there isn’t a bed. That means A&E is full. It also means people then can’t be transferred from an ambulance into A&E, so they wait. And the ambulance crews are then tied up and unable to answer the emergency calls.”

He says staff are increasingly suffering with depression, anxiety and stress because they’re not able to provide the level of care that they want to provide.

It comes as Yorkshire Ambulance staff including call handlers are currently voting on whether to take strike action over pay.

Speaking yesterday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted the £8bn package set out in the Chancellor’s autumn statement for NHS and social care last week would tackle some of the problems facing the health service.

Nick Smith, Executive Director of Operations at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said:

“Along with other ambulance services across the country, Yorkshire Ambulance Service has been experiencing high levels of demand for its services.

“This protracted period of operational pressures is being managed in line with the plans that we have in place to protect our core services.

“It’s important that members of the public only call 999 for an ambulance when it is a serious or life-threatening emergency. This will help us to focus our efforts on our most poorly patients.

“People can also help us by not calling back to check where the ambulance is as we need those phone lines to be free for those in a life-threatening condition. However, if the condition of the patient changes or if an ambulance is no longer needed, it’s important that you let us know.”