GPs forced to drive patients to A&E themselves
A shocking video highlights the issues of long ambulance waiting times
Last updated 24th Jan 2024
There are calls for ministers to do more to tackle ambulance waiting times after a video from a Health Centre highlighted the issue.
In the powerful video medical staff at a Wilmslow Health Centre in Cheshire are dealing with a patient who is rapidly deteriorating and needs urgent medical attention that only a hospital can provide.
They call an ambulance which they say should take just 30 minutes to arrive. In reality, after three hours of waiting, the NHS staff decide to drive the patient to the hospital themselves.
One of the workers in the video says:
"This was a gentleman whose condition was really rapidly deteriorating. He should have been seen much earlier, but the ambulance didn't arrive.
"It's not the ambulance people's fault. The system is broken. He waited three hours.
"We've done this a few times before. We've been calling ambulances. They don't turn up. Or they say, 'call us when the patients stop breathing.' I ah, kid you not.
"The system is totally broken. Politicians on both sides need to wake up and do something about it because people are dying.
"Wake up, stop obfuscating and do something about it now."
Post-pandemic, the Government introduced its 'Delivery Plan for Recovering Urgent and Emergency Care Services.'
They say cutting Ambulance wait times to an average of 30 minutes is their target for this year and next year they're hoping to return to pre-pandemic response times.
Ministers pledged £200 million of additional funding for the ambulance service this year, alongside 800 new ambulances to grow capacity and improve response times.
Six new ambulance hubs and 42 new and upgraded discharge lounges are opening at hospitals across the country, which will help cut urgent and emergency care waiting times for tens of thousands of patients.