To quote Granny Weatherwax, I aten’t dead, merely returned from some family time. And so, to pick up where I left off…

• Uber ambulance: 2.7 million did not take an ambulance to A&E last year – up 340,000 on 2019
• Jardine welcomes children’s evacuation

Uber ambulance: 2.7 million did not take an ambulance to A&E last year – up 340,000 on 2019

There were at least 2.7 million attendances at A&E where someone did not use an ambulance to get there, with over a quarter-of-a-million in need of very urgent medical attention opting not to use one, Liberal Democrat Freedom of Information requests (FOIs) have revealed.

It has led to the party saying that there is an “Uber ambulance crisis” and that the Government should create a new £50 million-a-year emergency fund to allow ambulance trusts to reverse closures of community ambulance stations, as well as launching a campaign to retain, recruit and train paramedics and other ambulance staff.

The FOIs found that the number of A&E attendances from not arriving in an ambulance had risen by 14% since 2019, from 2.36 million to 2.7 million. Only 30 of the 144 NHS Trusts responded with full data so these figures are likely to be far higher in reality.

The data also revealed the severity of injury of those attending, which is broken down into five codes. Code 1 is those in need of immediate medical attention including those in need of immediate resuscitation. There were 10,600 Code 1 incidents last year, up by 1,600 on 2023’s figure of 9,000. Code 2 represents those in need of very urgent medical attention. Across 2024 there were 256,000 attendances of this type with a massive spike of 55% on 2019’s figure of 165,000.

The Trust that saw the largest rise in non-ambulance A&E attendances was Sandwell and West Birmingham, where there was a 320% rise since 2019 with the figures jumping from 3,900 to 16,500 last year. Mid and South Essex has the highest number of attendances through not arriving in an ambulance with 322,000 last year, up on 2019’s figure of 263,000.

The Liberal Democrats also asked for figures that showed the number of these types of A&E attendances by those aged over 65. Last year, there were 459,000, up 22% on 2019’s 375,000 according to the 22 NHS Trusts which responded with full data. Of those 3,100 were considered Code 1, up 2,730 on 2023 with 53,600 considered Code 2 representing an 80% rise on 2019’s 29,700.

The steepest rise in over 65s non-ambulance attendances was in North Cumbria where they jumped 97% to 22,305. Mid and South Essex again had the highest number of these types of attendances with 52,400, up from 39,700 in 2019 – a rise of 32%.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Helen Morgan MP said:

These figures lay bare an Uber ambulance crisis, where people do not think they can rely on ambulance services even in the most serious of circumstances. This could have deadly consequences if people have lost faith that ambulances will be there when they need them.

Years of Conservative neglect have brought us to this point and they should hang their heads in shame but the Labour government is failing to deliver the change that people are crying out for. We are still seeing people being treated in A&E corridors and ambulances queuing up outside, causing delays that people are rightfully terrified by.

Everyone should call and wait for an ambulance if they need one, but we also have to also make sure they reach people on time so no one thinks they have to take themselves to A&E in a life and death situation. That means protecting local ambulance stations from closure and launching a campaign to retain, recruit and train paramedics and other ambulance staff.

Jardine welcomes children’s evacuation

Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine has welcomed the UK Government’s decision to allow more than 30 critically injured Palestinian children to be evacuated to this country for medical care.

Ms Jardine was one of more than 100 MPs who wrote to the Prime Minister this weekend urging him “to recognise the real urgency of medical evacuations and act on some of the barriers that are preventing the very sickest children from being evacuated from Gaza”.

The cross party group highlighted the decimation of the healthcare system, destruction of essential infrastructure and blockade of food, water and medical supplies which has contributed to a medical and humanitarian catastrophe on a frightening scale.

The MP, who has also been pressing the government to help students trapped in Gaza to take up the places they have been offered at Edinburgh University, said:

It was a huge relief to hear that the government has responded to our pleas and is going to act immediately to get some of these children out.

Nobody who has seen the media coverage or read the stories could be in any doubt about the scale of the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza and the need to provide support as quickly as possible.

But although we can help these children there are still many, many more young people, families in Gaza as well as the remaining Israeli hostages taken by Hamas for whom it is absolutely vital that this war is brought to an end.

We must keep up the pressure for humanitarian aid, an immediate ceasefire and a long term two state solution which upholds peace and security for all and recognises a state of Palestine.