17 April 2023 , 21:30
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Patients are waiting up to two-and-a-half days for ambulances as a shortage of hospital beds creates delays.
Figures obtained by Labour revealed it took 65 hours for paramedics to get to one person in the North West in December.
The response time was 32 times the two-hour target for a category 3 call, which includes patients in the late stages of labour and diabetic attacks.
Labour said the figures revealed a “terrifying reality” of emergency care under the Tories.
Response times for people suffering conditions such as heart attacks and strokes were as long as 26 hours in the East Midland and 21 hours in both Yorkshire and the South East.
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Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said the figures revealed a 'terrifying reality' of emergency care under the Tories (PA)The NHS has a target to reach these types of patients within 18 minutes.
Patients also face record long waits once they eventually get to hospital.
One person waited 40 hours in the back of an ambulance outside an A&E department in the South West, while patients in the East of England and West Midlands waited up to 36 hours and 32 hours respectively.
In total this winter, 153,000 people waited for more than an hour in the backs of ambulances outside hospitals.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Patients can no longer trust that an ambulance will reach them in an emergency.
“Stroke and heart attack victims are left waiting for hours, when every second counts. This is the terrifying reality after 13 years of Conservative understaffing of our NHS.
“Patients should be able to phone 999, safe in the knowledge that they will get an answer and an ambulance when they need it. The longer we give the Conservatives in office, the longer patients will wait.”
NHS Providers chief executive Sir Julian Hartley said: “These figures are further evidence, were it needed, that last winter was one of toughest on record for the NHS.
“The causes of long ambulance waits are complex. High demand – always at its worst in winter – along with overstretched capacity and vast workforce shortages all contribute.
“The government’s promised long-term workforce plan, which must be fully funded and costed, should help address these issues. It cannot come a minute too soon.”
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