Over 43,000 people died by the time an ambulance got to them last year, figures reveal.
As delays hit services, the number of patients who died before paramedics reached them hit an average of 120 a day.
In December alone, 4,324 people were declared dead on arrival by ambulance services.
That is an increase of 19% compared to the same month the previous year.
In total, 43,758 people were pronounced dead when an ambulance reached them last year.
Government sources tonight insisted there was no evidence the deaths, which may have been caused by a number of reasons, were a result of ambulance delays.
The North West recorded 8,450 patients as dead on arrival in 2022, more than any other region.
South East Coast Ambulance Service recorded 1,022 patients as dead on arrival in December, up 34% on the previous year.
Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, who obtained the data through freedom of information, said: “These figures are truly shocking. Paramedics work extremely hard to save lives but have been let down by a Conservative government starving the NHS of the resources it needs.
“The consequences are real and deadly. Chronic staff shortages in social care mean we cannot move people out of hospital beds, leaving desperate patients stuck in queuing ambulances. Ambulances that are then unavailable to go and help other patients in need.”
Ms Hobhouse called for “urgent action now” to tackle staff shortages in social care, which would reduce pressure on overstretched hospitals and ambulance services.
She said: “The Liberal Democrats would fix this with a carers' Living Wage. This would help recruit and retain staff, ensuring there is proper capacity in our care system.
“We need urgent action now or we will face crisis after growing crisis.”
Paramedics have told of the horror of how ambulance delays mean they arrive to find dead patients they are too late to save.
Hard-pressed 999 workers say they are routinely confronted by angry relatives demanding to know why their loved ones have been lost.
Ambulance response times in England were the worst on record in December.
The average response time for people requiring an ambulance for a stroke, severe burns or chest pain was 93 minutes. That is five times the operation target of 18 minutes.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The implication that these deaths are due to ambulance delays is misleading – the data does not show a link between deaths and ambulance waiting times and numbers have not significantly changed over the three year period.
“Our priority is ensuring patients get the care they need and we are improving ambulance waiting times, which have substantially reduced from the peak of winter pressures in December 2022.
“Our Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan will allow people to be seen quicker by scaling up community teams, expanding virtual wards, and getting 800 new ambulances on the road. This is on top of £750 million we have provided this winter to speed up hospital discharge and free up beds.”
'My husband died in pain on kitchen floor after waiting 103 minutes for ambulance'
A woman has told how her husband died in agony on their kitchen floor after waiting one hour and 43 minutes for an ambulance.
Emma Mogg rang 999 as Garry, 63, complained he was feeling unwell after waking up early one more morning last July at their home in Bath, Somerset.
“I first rang at 5:07am and said he was getting chest pains,” she said. “All I really remember is the call handler saying, ‘I am organising help’, which you take at face value that an ambulance is on its way.”
After a while, Mrs Mogg said her husband, a father-of-four, began asking where the paramedics were. “He was saying, ‘Come on ambulance, where is the ambulance?’
“I glanced at the clock and realised over an hour had passed. I rang again and said, ‘We have not had an ambulance’.
“I remember asking him what the pain was like and he said ‘agonising’.
“I walked from the kitchen up the hallway, opened the door and stepped outside. I looked up and looked down to see if I could see an ambulance coming.
“As I turned around he was stood by the sink and just dropped.”
Mrs Mogg and her daughter took turns performing CPR on her husband.
The first ambulance did not arrive until 6:50am. “They declared him dead at 7:47am,” she said.
Mrs Mogg later put in a complaint to the ambulance service about the treatment of her husband, who died from a cardiac arrest.
She was told that during her first 999 call his case was assessed as a category 2 case, meaning an ambulance should have been with him within 18 minutes.
“They talked a lot about audits, categories and call times. We got a sort of apology for the failings of the NHS, but it does not bring Garry back,” she added.
“It makes me feel sick. I firmly believe if an ambulance had been here in 10 to 20 minutes and they had got him to a hospital that he could have been saved.
“Now it’s all the things that he won’t get to see. His youngest finishes school this year, he won’t get to see him do that and go to college.
“Garry’s sister got married in February. He should have been there to walk her up the aisle.
"There are all these things that he will miss out on.”
A spokesman for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are sorry that we were unable to provide a timely response to Mr Mogg and we would again like to offer our sincere condolences to his family and loved ones.
"Our ambulance clinicians strive every day to give their best to patients, but our performance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, partly due to handover delays at emergency departments.
“Health and social care services are under enormous pressure. We are working with our partners in the NHS and social care, to do all we can to improve the service that patients receive.”
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