Tag Archives: ambulances

NHS Strikes – view from the back of an ambulance

By Andy Boddington | Thu 8th December 2022 - 5:30 pm

It is the season of goodwill, the season of health services being stretched to the limit and this year, the season of strikes, including amongst some of our most dedicated health professionals. Nurses and ambulance crews. The government having applauded nurses, health and care professionals on their doorsteps during the pandemic is spoiling for fight over wage increases. Promising no money.

That is one reason strikers are taking action. The need for some of them to go to food banks. The struggle to pay the rent or mortgage because pay has not caught up with the cost of living.

The other reason is the working conditions. The constant pressure in an understaffed, poorly managed health service. It never copes with demand. It is forever being reorganised but never seems to get out of crisis mode. It never has enough money.

Let me illustrate the issue through the case of Susan. Obviously not her real name.

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NewsHound

MPs debate ambulance and emergency department waiting times

By NewsHound | Sat 9th July 2022 - 8:30 am

Amid the political maelstrom of last Wednesday, MPs found time to debate the continuing ambulance crisis (video). The debate was led by Wera Hobhouse, Lib Dem MP for Bath. There were important contributions made by Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative members.

The government response was given by the Minister for Health, Edward Argar. His view seemed to be that the problems are not as bad Lib Dem, Labour and some Conservative members were suggesting and where there are problems, they are being solved. Watching the debate, I had the distinct impression if MPs were allowed to a appear in fancy dress (Jacob Rees Mogg excepted), Argar would appear dressed as Dumbledore and magic away the problems with a flick of his wand.

Wera Hobhouse:

More and more people are calling ambulance services or attending A&E because they are having difficulties accessing other, more appropriate parts of our health system. National NHS performance figures illustrate that our healthcare service does not have the capacity to meet demand…

Recently, an elderly man was forced to sleep on the floor of a local church as it took 12 hours for an ambulance to arrive—12 hours. A GP surgery ran out of oxygen for a patient due to the time it took for the ambulance to arrive. Ambulance handover delays are a significant patient-safety risk… and up to 90% of the causes of delay are linked to the availability of beds in the hospital.

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NewsHound

Richard Foord makes “maiden intervention” on ambulances and Morgan tables EDM

By NewsHound | Thu 30th June 2022 - 9:37 am

On Monday, Richard Foord was sworn in as MP for Tiverton and Honiton. The political repercussions of the stunning Lib Dem victory are still rattling around with some suggesting that the Tories are in danger of losing their rural votes.

Foord’s intervention yesterday evening was described by Deputy Speaker as “his maiden intervention—if such terminology exists; it does now.”

Intervening in an adjournment debate on ambulance waiting times at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Richard Foord said:

During the by-election campaign in Tiverton and Honiton, almost everybody I spoke to on the doorstep had their own personal story about having to wait for an ambulance. This is not the fault of ambulance crews, but it is absolutely the system-wide issue that the hon. Member describes. Does she agree that what we really need is a community ambulance fund to alleviate some of the pressures we are experiencing in the south-west, given that we have the longest ambulance waiting times in the country?

The answer from Cherilyn Mackrory, Conservative MP for Truro and Falmouth, responded that it was the responsibility of the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) not ministers.

Helen Morgan has also tabled an EDM calling for immediate action to tackle the ambulance crisis.

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NewsHound

Ambulance response targets for life-threatening calls missed in all Devon

By NewsHound | Thu 9th June 2022 - 5:52 pm

Devonlive reports today that the target for ambulances responding to life-threatening calls is now being missed in all of Devon’s seven local districts. Patients in Mid Devon waited an average of over 15 minutes for life-threatening calls in 2021, longer than anywhere else in the county. Category 1 calls cover the most serious incidents such as a cardiac arrest or heavy bleeding and should be responded to within an average of seven minutes.

The average waiting time for Category 2 calls in the county has more than doubled over the past year to 49 minutes, way above the target of 19 minutes.

The data was obtained by the Liberal Democrats from the South West Ambulance Trust through a Freedom of Information request.

Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson Daisy Cooper called for urgent action from the government to support ambulance services in rural areas like Devon. She said the Lib Dems have set out a rescue plan including more investment in local ambulance services, enabling trusts to bring back community ambulance stations in rural areas and launching a campaign to recruit and retain more paramedics.

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17 August 2022: Ambulance Domesday in West Midlands

By Andy Boddington | Thu 26th May 2022 - 12:17 pm

If you live in the West Midlands and are going to fall ill, you better get on with it. Certainly, don’t leave it until 17 August because if you want an ambulance, you may not get one. That’s the apocalyptic prediction from a director of the West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS).

Ambulance provision in the West Midlands, as in many other areas of the country, has been struggling for a couple of years. There are endless stories of delays in ambulances reaching patients. Handover delays from ambulance paramedics at the county’s two hospitals, both maintained by the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust (SaTH), are among the longest in England. There are far too many reports of patients dying during these delays when they might have survived. Too many patients with worse health outcomes because they could not get to specialist treatment quickly enough.

Mark Docherty, Executive Director of Nursing and Clinical Commissioning at WMAS, this week told the media and the board members of the ambulance service that the whole West Midlands ambulance service could fail by mid-August.

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NewsHound

Morgan: Ambulance crisis motion passed at Conference

By NewsHound | Sun 13th March 2022 - 7:30 am

Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire yesterday evening passed a party policy motion at the Liberal Democrats Spring Conference to tackle the ambulance service crisis.

In the new policy, called ‘The Crisis in Our Ambulance Services’ passed by Liberal Democrat members this weekend the party calls for:

  • Emergency funding to be made available to ambulance trusts to reverse closures of community ambulance stations and cancel planned closures where needed.
  • The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid to commission the CQC to conduct an investigation into the causes and impacts of ambulance service delays.
  • An Ambulance Waiting Times Bill to be passed into law requiring accessible, localised reports of ambulance response times to be published.
  • A campaign to retain, recruit and train paramedics and other ambulance staff.
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NewsHound

Lib Dem MPs demand action on ambulance waiting times

By NewsHound | Tue 21st December 2021 - 8:50 am

Helen Morgan, the new MP for North Shropshire, started her first working day since the by-election win by demanding action on local ambulance waiting times. Helen Morgan, along with Lib Dem health spokesperson Daisy Cooper yesterday called for an urgent review into the ambulance crisis which leaves thousands in Shropshire waiting too long for emergency treatment.

The letter to the Health Secretary calls for a Care Quality Commission (CQC) review into ambulance services in England, with all ambulance services across the country now at REAP level 4 – the highest level meaning that ambulance services are under “Extreme Pressure”. With Covid rates rising, there is now a fear the ambulance crisis in Shropshire will worsen. The region already has one of the worst performing ambulance services, with new figures released over the weekend revealing 52% of patients at Royal Shrewsbury are left waiting more than 30 minutes in an ambulance before being handed over to A&E. The backlog in A&E, and shortages of ambulances, leaves those in need of emergency care left waiting dangerously long amounts of times before receiving care.

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NewsHound

Javid snubs meeting with West Midlands ambulance trust – highlighting Tory neglect of North Shropshire NHS services

By NewsHound | Tue 14th December 2021 - 9:30 am

Embed from Getty Images

The Health Secretary Sajid Javid has ignored requests for a meeting with his local ambulance trust in the West Midlands, despite warnings that record delays are posing a “catastrophic risk” to patients in the region.

Board documents from the trust reveal that the Health Secretary was invited to a meeting over four months ago but has still not replied. It comes despite the local trust warning that record handover delays at the region’s hospitals are putting patients at risk of severe harm or even death, as it moved its risk rating to the highest possible level for the first time ever. The trust recently apologised to one 95-year old woman who was left waiting for 11 hours on the floor of her home for an ambulance with a suspected broken leg.

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Tracey Huffer

Nearly two-thirds of Shropshire ambulances delayed at A&E – second worst performance in country

By Tracey Huffer | Sat 11th December 2021 - 7:06 am

I am a health assistant in a GP practice in south Shropshire. We are working flat out to get everyone jabbed and catch up with the backlog of patients who had not recognised or reported their conditions during the long periods of lockdown and shielding. Further north in the county, the situation is no different and the county is getting worse with the onset of winter pressures.

GPs are overstretched across Shropshire. Hospitals are at capacity with 93% of adult general and acute beds occupied. Ambulance arrival times and transfer times are growing. Nearly two-thirds of 999 ambulances must wait for 30 minutes or more to hand over patients outside the county’s two A&Es. On one day recently, there were no ambulances available in the county. This is much worse than elsewhere and much worse than last year.

I am getting frightened by the growing delays in ambulances picking up patients transferring them into A&E. People in Shropshire needing time critical treatment have died while waiting for an ambulance or hospital transfer. This is a major issue in the North Shropshire by-election.

The handover times at the Royal Shrewsbury and Princes Royal Hospital A&Es are the second longest in England. Sixty three per cent of ambulances must wait for more than thirty minutes outside our A&Es before they can handover their patients.

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The Voice

Daisy Cooper: Ambulances are on high alert across England

By The Voice | Wed 24th November 2021 - 12:17 pm

A month ago Daisy Cooper submitted a question to the Government, and she has only just received a reply. Her question was:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many ambulance trusts have moved into REAP Level 4 in the last six weeks; and how many in total are at REAP Level 4 as at 22 October 2021.

REAP = Resource Escalation Action Plan. Level 4 is the highest level and indicates Extreme Pressure.

The response did arrive after this prompt:

In the last six weeks, all 11 English ambulance trusts have been at or moved to REAP Level 4. On 22 October 2021, all 11 ambulance trusts were at REAP Level 4.

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