THE full extent of the crisis which has been gripping the country’s ambulance service can be laid bare in a GBNews investigation.
Shocking new data reveals how, over the past 12 months, patients have been facing waits of up to FOUR DAYS for an ambulance when they dial 999.
Details of the waiting times were obtained using Freedom of Information laws.
Among the most shocking findings was a case that happened in the South West of England last May.
A patient was forced to wait more than four days for an ambulance
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The patient who was suffering from psychiatric problems waited over 103 hours – a total of 4 days, 7 hours, 54 minutes - for help to arrive.
In a statement a spokesperson for South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust apologised and said they were working hard to overcome challenges.
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The spokesperson said: “We are sorry that we were unable to provide a timely response to some patients. Any occasion where the care we provide falls below the high standards our patients deserve and rightly expect is unacceptable.
“Handover delays at emergency departments remain one of our biggest challenges. To ensure our ambulances are available to attend the next emergency call within the community, we need to be able to hand patients over within the 15 minute national target.
“We continue to work hard with our partners in the NHS and social care, to do all we can to improve the service that patients receive.”
The trust also said that since 2020 they’ve increased the number of hours our ambulances are on the road every week from 37,000 to over 50,000 hours per week.
An NHS whistleblower has laid bare the extent of the crisis facing the ambulance service
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GB News obtained our information by writing to all of the country’s major ambulance trusts to ask them for a breakdown of their longest waiting times over the last 12 months.
The findings were astonishing.
Cases at other trusts across England included the following incidents:
*A case where there was a wait of over two and a half hours for someone in cardiac arrest – where minutes and seconds count towards survival.
*An unconscious patient who waited over TWO HOURS after their ambulance was diverted NINE TIMES.
* A two-days and twenty hour wait for a patient who had fallen over in Wales
Other cases included:
*A 20-hour wait for a patient in the East of England earlier this year, suffering from what was recorded as ‘Acute Coronary Syndrome’. ACS is a group of conditions which include heart attacks and unstable angina.
*A patient in Yorkshire waited 21 hours for help after suffering with ‘traumatic injuries’.
*And in another case in London a man waited over 22 hours after falling unconscious. In the end he regained consciousness hours before the ambulance arrived.
Responding to the investigation one Conservative MP said the NHS ‘does need reform”
Speaking on GB News, Andrew Rosindell said: “The National Health Service is a state-run monopoly and whatever you do with it, how much money you spend on it, and by the way, the government has actually spent an extra 45% on the National Health Service since 2018.
“We need a new way of managing health services across this country. “