Stroke patients face waits of up to TWO HOURS for ambulances in some parts of England
STROKE patients face waits of up to two hours for ambulances in some parts of England.
Leaked NHS data reveals the average time for category 2 call-outs, which also include heart attacks, soared to 70 minutes this week.
That is almost four times the 18-minute target — but the Health Service Journal reports the wait stretched to a shocking two hours on some days in the South West.
The reason is hospitals are so busy and unable to discharge patients to social care that wards and A&E units are backed up.
Dr Ian Higginson, of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “Emergency departments must have capacity to meet demand and constant flow into inpatient beds
“Patients suffer harm or die unnecessarily if they can’t get an ambulance in time, when held in ambulances or treated in crowded departments.”
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The latest NHS figures show a quarter of ambulances wait at least half an hour to off-load patients, while one in ten has to hang around for more than an hour.
Health sources said social care delays also mean a growing number of hospital patients are well enough to go home but cannot because no help is available.
The RCEM also claimed patients should not be treated in tents or corridors as it is an “awful experience associated with harm and death”.
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, said: “Staff remain under pressure as they deal with high numbers of patients alongside a spike in staff absences due to Covid.
“Yet they are working hard to deliver as much routine care as possible as well as rolling out the NHS spring booster.”