Catch a bus to hospital if you suffer a heart attack, say GPS

DOCTORS say they have advised patients suffering possible heart attacks to get a bus to hospital, saying ambulances have become a “last resort service”.

It comes as official figures show record numbers of ambulances stuck outside hospitals in the run-up to New Year with almost half suffering delays.

The figures reveal the extent of the gridlock in hospitals in the days after Christmas, with almost 48 per cent of arrivals suffering 30 minute delays at the worst point last week.

Health chiefs said the service was enduring “extreme pressure” with a continued rise in hospital admissions for covid and flu.

Family doctors said they were increasingly telling patients to make their own way to hospital, even in highrisk situations.

Dr Paul Evans, a leading GP, told Pulse magazine that he had been advising patients to get a lift or taxi if they possibly can. This week he advised a patient with central chest pain – which can indicate a heart attack – that they would be likely to get treatment more quickly if they got the bus, rather than wait for an ambulance.

He said: “I now only call ambulances for those who are truly bedbound and unable to be thrown into the back of a car, or have literally no-one.”

“The same goes for colleagues in and out of hours.”

Dr Evans, chairman of Gateshead and South Tyneside local medical committee, said GPS are now considering ambulances to be a “last resort” option even for very unwell patients.

Health chiefs say anyone in a situation they consider to be life-threatening should dial 999, while they advise 111 online for other situations.

Another family doctor who did not want to be named said they had driven a dangerously ill elderly patient to hospital because oxygen supplies ran low while on hold waiting for help.

It had felt unsafe to transport such a patient without an ambulance but they “couldn’t sit by and watch someone die”, the GP said.

Dr Lucy Pocock, a GP in Bristol, said the practice was turning to taxis and that some patients were given palliative care when they would normally be sent to hospital.