We need a quick fix for the crisis in ambulance waiting times

IT is never easy, when a patient is taken to hospital in an emergency and later dies, to determine whether – if things had been done differently or more speedily – the outcome would have been different.

But in at least four cases of patients taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital, in Truro, recently, very strong suspicions have emerged that delays in getting them to hospital severely reduced their chances of survival.

That’s why the senior coroner for Cornwall, Andrew Cox, is right to have written to the Health Secretary to raise his concerns and why this issue – which has been going on for far too long here in the South West – now needs to be addressed much more vigorously by the Government.

We know the causes of the ambulance delays that preceded the deaths of an 87-year-old RAF veteran, a 90-year-old from Hayle, an 83-year-old form teacher from Penzance and a 54-year-old holidaymaker.

Bed-blocking because of a crisis in social care means too few beds to take in patients brought to hospital by ambulance. As a result, ambulances – in some cases up to 30 – are stuck outside the Accident and Emergency department and cannot get back on the road to attend the next emergency.

But knowing what’s causing the problem is no comfort to the families and loved ones of those four victims who might be alive today but for the long wait they had to get the care they needed.

And fixing a broken social care system is going to take many months, if not years.

So Health Secretary Steve Barclay, who will now have Mr Cox’s letter at the top of his in-tray, needs to come up with a plan in the short term.

During the Covid crisis, Nightingale hospitals were built in doublequick time and medical staff, some who came out of retirement, were recruited to staff them.

The current crisis may not be as dramatic as that caused by the pandemic, but it is almost certainly costing lives and causing immense distress, yet the urgency with which it is being addressed by those in power is clearly lacking.

In each of the four cases highlighted by Mr Cox in his letter to the Health Secretary, a speedy start to treatment is recognised as the difference between a positive and a negative outcome for the patient. In each of those cases, there were delays, in some cases severe delays.

With care homes closing and up to five wards full of patients at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in need of moving into a care environment, the scale of the problem – particularly in the South West – could hardly be more obvious.

Mr Cox told the Health Secretary in his letter: “In my opinion, action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you have the power to take such action.”

He is right. There are times when a Government minister has to be called to account to make changes, even if they are short term and made in an emergency.

To simply try to explain away the problem or come up with solutions that are months away won’t do. We’re waiting, Mr Barclay.