Response times for ambulances improve by one hour

Latest figures show that ambulance crews reached emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks one hour faster in January than they did in December, taking an average of 32 minutes compared to over 90 minutes the month before.

Although still short of the target response time of 18 minutes, it is the best performance for 19 months.

Accident and Emergency waits also improved, with just over 25 per cent of patients waiting for longer than four hours, down from over a third in December.

Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Royal Society for Acute Medicine, said despite the improvement, the situation was still “intolerable”.

He added “The fundamental problem remains a significant shortage of workforce leading to woefully inadequate inpatient bed and social care capacity.”

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said the improvement was pleasing and praised staff for working “flat out” during winter.

He did, however, warn that the ongoing strike action would “inevitably” impact on the progress being made on waits for planned hospital care such as hip and knee replacements.

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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