• Pensioner waits more than 9 hours for ambulance after suffering heat stroke as UK hits heatwave
• CalMac maintenance soars 55% in a year to over £41m

Pensioner waits more than 9 hours for ambulance after suffering heat stroke as UK hits heatwave

• Freedom of Information Act (FOI) on heat strokes reveals a pensioner in the East Midlands waited close to nine-and-a-half-hours for an ambulance last year.

• FOI shows an almost doubling of ambulance response times when going on call outs involving heat stroke since 2018/19, rising from 32 minutes to 59 minutes in 2023/24.

• Lib Dem Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper calls for urgent cross-party talks on social care and a review of the UK’s preparedness for heat waves saying: “We’ve heard too many harrowing heatstroke stories from people waiting hours in a state of confusion for an ambulance to arrive.”

A pensioner in the East Midlands waited close to nine-and-a-half-hours for an ambulance last year a Liberal Democrat FOI has revealed as the UK is in the midst of a heatwave following high temperatures this week.

The data also revealed that there has been a staggering 84% increase in ambulance response times when going on call outs involving heat stroke since 2018/19, rising from 32 minutes to 59 minutes in 2023/24.

The South East Coast saw the largest rise in response times for these incidents with responses averaging 52 minutes last year compared with 18 minutes in 2018/19. That is a shocking 189% increase.

Wales had the longest response time for heat stroke incidents at more than two hours (138 minutes), up from 55 minutes in 2018/19. This was also the trust which saw the longest wait for all patients with heat stroke last year at a shocking 11 hours and 16 minutes.

Four of the seven ambulance trusts who responded to the FOI with complete data showed that their response times for pensioners were on average higher than they were for all patients.

The average response time for someone over the age of 65 suffering from heat stroke was 54 minutes, up 38% on the 39 minutes it was in 2018/19. This included one wait for a pensioner in the East Midlands of 9 hours and 27 minutes last year.

The Liberal Democrats said the data was “disturbing” and showed “how the Conservatives have brought our NHS to its knees.” The party is calling on the Labour Government to start cross party talks on social care in order to fix the crisis in the sector which would free up the beds in hospitals to prevent handover delays and long ambulance response times and to launch a review of the UK’s preparedness for heat waves.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said:

We’ve heard too many harrowing heatstroke stories from people waiting hours in a state of confusion for an ambulance to arrive.

This deeply disturbing data just lays bare once again how the Conservatives have brought our NHS to its knees, leaving people wondering if an ambulance will ever turn up. That needs to change.

We need urgent cross party talks to create a rescue plan for social care, so we can prevent people from getting heatstroke in the first place as well as helping people out of hospitals when they don’t need to be there, freeing up beds in hospitals and preventing ambulance handover delays. We also need a review of our preparedness for heat waves.

For too long patients have been left without the high quality community services they need and staff have been left without the resources to do their job.

CalMac maintenance soars 55% in a year to over £41m

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today revealed that the maintenance bill for the CalMac fleet has risen 55% in a year to over £41m as he said that the SNP have let down islanders for too long.

Freedom of information requests submitted by Scottish Liberal Democrats reveal that £41,235,000 was spent on maintenance costs in 2023/24, up from £26,555,000 in 2022/23. That means that nearly £150m has been spent on repairs and maintenance since the first of the delayed ferries under construction at the Ferguson shipyard were supposed to be running.

The request also revealed that more than £500,000 was spent on customer rights claims in 2023/24.

Commenting on the figures, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

Old and battered boats are requiring more and more time and money to repair.

The SNP’s ferries fiasco has left islanders without the lifeline services they need. They have been in power for 17 years. There is no one to blame but themselves.

This is not just an issue that matters to islanders. People across the country have been shocked by the SNP’s economic incompetence.

The SNP have let people down for too long. Liberal Democrats want to get the basics right, make sure that islanders have access to the ferries they need and rebuild our country’s economic reputation.