More bad news for PM Sunak as Ambulance response times for December are worst on record, however the waiting lists for routine operations fell

There was more bad news for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak today, as Ambulance response time for December as the worst on record, with emergency patients across the country beingforced to endure waiting times of more than an hour.

 

New figures show the average response time in December for ambulances in England dealing with the most urgent Category 1 incidents, defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, was 10 minutes and 57 seconds.

 

While the average wait times for Category 2 ambulance calls – emergencies such strokes – was over an hour and a half for the first time (1hr 32m). The target for these calls is 18 minutes.

 

The shocking waiting time in England, even for conditions like heart attacks and strokes are the worst on record which began in 2011.

 

The figures, which include waiting times at A&E departments show that in December:

• Average waiting times were more than 90 minutes to reach emergency calls
• Time taken to reach stokes were five times longer than the target time
• Response times for the highest priority calls, such as cardiac arrests, taking close to 11 minutes was four minutes longer than the target
• Half of patients attending major A&E departments were not seen within the target time of four hours – the time on record

The figures, released today were not all bad news for the Government as the proportion of cancer patients in England who saw a specialist within the two weeks of an urgent GP referral went up from 77.8 per cent in October to 78.8 per centin November

 

While some progress was made on waiting list for routine treatment, which fell by around 200,000 from 7.21m to 7.19m – although this is still the second highest figure on record

 

Louise Ansari, national director of the Healthwatch England patient group, commented: “Pressures on the NHS right now are intolerable – with patients paying the price.”

 

Wes Streeting, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, added:“The NHS is in the biggest crisis in its history. The terrifying truth is that patients in an emergency can no longer be sure the NHS will be there for them.

 

“Heart attack and stroke victims are routinely waiting over three hours for an ambulance, when every second counts. 24 hours in A&E is not just a TV programme, it is the grim reality for too many patients. Too many lives are being lost as a result.

 

“After 13 years of Conservative mismanagement of the NHS, expecting them to fix this crisis is like asking the arsonist to put out the fire they started – it is not going to happen.

 

“Labour will provide the biggest expansion of NHS staff in history to treat patients on time, and reform the health service to make it fit for the future. We will train 7,500 more doctors a year, 10,000 more nurses and midwives every year, double the number of district nurses qualifying, and 5,000 more health visitors, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status.”

 

Downing Street recognised that there was considerable concerns around the pressure on the NHS and waiting times in England, commenting: “people will be rightly concerned” about the figures.

 

The prime minister’s spokesman added the ambulance waits in particular were clearly “not acceptable” and tackling the problems was one of the government’s key priorities.

Alistair Thompson

Alistair Thompson is the Director of Team Britannia PR and a journalist.