DEL AYS Hubby’s torment as handlers fouled up

investment in staff and services but the Government is yet to make any commitment to this.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, called the rise in lengthy waits frightening and blamed Government cuts, NHS financial wastage and poor workforce planning.

She said: “Nobody would want to think their elderly, and perhaps frail, parents might have a fall in the night and would be left waiting for hours on end for someone to come to help them.”

The biggest rise in critically ill patients waiting more than an hour for an ambulance was in the East Midlands, where the number shot up seven-fold from 71 in 2013/14 to 490 last year.

David Whiting, chief operating officer at East Midlands Ambulance Service, said 181,712 patients did receive a response within eight minutes last year.

Pressure

He said: “We are sorry some of our patients had to wait for an ambulance and we’re working hard to improve.”

He said an independent review of the service is taking place and the local clinical commissioning group agreed to make the required funding available.

In London waits of 60 minutes or more for critically ill patients quadrupled from 261 to 1,166 in the past two years.

A s pokesman f or London Ambulance Service said: “We always prioritise our most critically ill patients.

“In June on average it took us eight minutes to reach patients in cardiac arrest.” She added 25 per cent of the 1,166 patients were already in the care of a medical professional.

A spokesman for North East Ambulance Service said the number of waits exceeding one hour for life threatening cases had rocketed from 31 to 118 due to “unprecedented pressure” on its services.

An NHS England spokesman said a national programme to train 2,000 new paramedics over the next five years would also help to address the country-wide shortage of paramedics.

Other initiatives include assessing and advising more callers over the phone – potentially referring them to other services.

The spokesman said: “The ambulance service is facing significant pressures and it is no secret that demand for urgent and emergency care services is at an all-time high.” died of a bur st GRANDMA Diane Priestley for an ambulance. artery after an hour wait David called The 57-year-old’s husband call handlers his wife 999 three times, telling and her tongue was struggling to breathe and lips had turned blue. But err ors by operators meant she was not classed as a life-threatening condition, so ambu - lance crew did not have to meet the eight-minute response target for top-priority calls. A longer 30minute response time was assigned. But North East Ambulance it because of high Service also failed to meet Co Durham, died demand. Diane, of Shildon, blood vessel in from a rupture of the main her abdomen last September. by the David, 59, remains tormented year s might have thought his wife of 40 reached her sooner. survived if paramedics