09 April 2023 , 23:01
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One in three 999 patients have made their own way to hospital due to record waits for ambulances.
Those needing urgent care aredriving or taking taxis, trains andeven buses, a shock poll found.
Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper blamed Tory cuts for the crisis. She said: “It is truly scandalous. This is a life-of-death issue."
The Tories were last night accused of bringing the ambulance service to its knees after 13 years of health cuts, with desperate patients now finding their own way to hospital.
A shock poll found one in three people needing emergency care have driven, taken taxis, trains or even buses amid record 999 waits for paramedics.
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A Savanta survey for the Lib Dems exposed just how deep the crisis is within the ambulance service.
Of the 34% of patients who said they have got to hospital under their own steam, 17% drove, 11% took a taxi and 6% used public transport.
Lib Dem health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said the figures 'reveal the horror of England’s ambulance crisis' (BBC)Lib Dem health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said: “These frightening figures reveal the horror of England’s ambulance crisis. Not only have ambulance services been left to pick up the slack of a broken health and care system, now people are being left to drive or even take a bus just to get to A&E because the ambulances themselves can’t get there in time.
“This is truly scandalous. The British public pay their fair share in tax to fund our NHS and at the very least they should be able to expect an ambulance to arrive in their hour of need.
“Tory ministers should apologise to every member of the public forced to make their own way to hospital because the ambulance simply couldn’t turn up in time.
“This is a life-or-death issue and the Government just doesn’t seem to get it.
NHS England data shows 20,920 hours were lost to handover delays (Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)“Health services have been underfunded for too long. We need a plan to fix it, including recruiting more paramedics, before another crisis causes more unnecessary deaths.”
A&Es savaged by Tory cuts are so short-staffed that 999 crews are often unable to unload patients into their care.
Significant ambulance handover delays were almost unheard of a decade ago.
But NHS England data shows 20,920 hours were lost to them last week.
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Figures reveal 27% of ambulance patients waited 30 minutes or longer, while 12% waited over an hour.
The Department of Health and Social Care said of the Lib Dem survey details: “We do not recognise these figures.
“We are working hard to improve ambulance response times which have substantially reduced from the peak of winter pressures in December.”