Rising demand leaves ambulance service at breaking point

An investigation by the BBC has found that paramedics are struggling to get to seriously injured and ill patients fast enough, with only one of the UK’s 13 ambulance services meeting its target.

Pressure on the system and rising demand are being blamed for the crisis, with the situation so critical that it is not unusual for ambulances to run out during peak times, according to senior paramedics.

In the last year, over 500,000 hours of paramedics’ time was lost in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in queuing for longer than the target of 15 minutes at Accident & Emergency departments, waiting to hand their patients over to hospital staff, a rise of 52% in two years.

Andrew Newton, chairman of the College of Paramedics, said “Talking to colleagues around the country, it’s not uncommon to find there are no resources to respond at all at a given time, particularly at nights and weekends. I was talking to one colleague recently who was explaining to me that the nearest ambulances were probably in France.”

NHS England’s ambulance lead, Professor Jonathan Benger, said that the delays upon reaching hospitals were causing problems for ambulance crews as during the time they were waiting to hand over patients, they were out of the loop and not able to answer 999 calls.

He also said that a major factor in the crisis was the rising number of calls being handled, hitting 9.4m last year, which was nearly three times the number ten years ago.

Professor Benger added “In the face of rising demand, it is not surprising we are having difficulty meeting these targets. It is time to look at the system.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of 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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