Ambulances are still queuing for hours outside a hospital where a pensioner died in one while waiting to be admitted.
The elderly woman suffered a cardiac arrest in the vehicle three hours after it pulled up at A&E.
And two weeks on, patients continue to face long delays.
One frustrated paramedic, sitting in a long line of stationary ambulances told us: “It’s like a war zone in there at the moment.”
At one point this week the Mirror saw 15 emergency vehicles queuing outside Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, Greater Manchester.
The paramedic added: “There is just no more capacity. We can’t offload our patients.
“They won’t accept our patients because there is no one there to look after them. When you ring 999 and wonder why the ambulance is taking two hours to get to you, it is because they are all here. They are all tied up outside A&E.
“It needs somebody to come up with some sort of plan.”
The first responder had been waiting in line outside A&E for an hour and a half when the Mirror arrived on Monday afternoon.
We were told some ambulances had been waiting for almost six hours with patients.
Also in the queue was a police van carrying what appeared to be a prisoner. A nurse was called to monitor the man.
Another paramedic said: “It is absolutely horrific. You can’t get a bed there. It’s like this all the time.”
The following day we returned to the site to find only two ambulances parked outside A&E.
Dr Chris Brookes, deputy chief executive and chief medical officer of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Fairfield General Hospital, said the situation was “challenging”.
He said: “Like many NHS organisations around the country, our hospitals continue to experience particularly high demand.
“We are working together with our colleagues across Greater Manchester to respond and ensure that we provide the best possible care for our patients.
“The situation remains challenging, but we are working with North West Ambulance Service to ensure people are handed over as quickly and as safely as possible.
“Anyone requiring medical attention is reminded only to call for an ambulance if someone is seriously ill or injured or their life is at risk.”
He said people with urgent but not life-threatening illnesses or injuries, should use NHS 111 first, online or via phone, who will direct them to the most appropriate local service. Last month an OAP died in an ambulance after being taken to Fairfield with a serious chest infection.
She was examined by doctors and given antibiotic treatment in the back of the vehicle. But three hours after arriving at the hospital on October 18, she suffered a cardiac arrest and died in the ambulance.
Dr Brookes apologised at the time and said: “While this investigation is at a very early stage, we know that the patient was triaged, examined and treated by doctors from the Emergency Department while in the ambulance due to there being no available beds.”
A paramedic said later: “It’s not right, it’s just insane. Every hospital is holding ambulances outside.
“I’ve had occasions where I’ve taken over from the night shift and the patient hasn’t made it through the door. They’ve been in the ambulance for eight hours, treated there and sent back home.
“Every hospital is really struggling to get patients through the door. Some hospitals will treat us as another ward.”
North West Ambulance Service apologised after last month’s incident at Fairfield and said it would investigate.
Phil's story
Three months ago, Phil Moore thought he was going to die in a supermarket car park.
The 50-year-old had started sweating, feeling dizzy and having chest pains.
He struggled back to his car and rang 999 immediately, but had to wait around 40 minutes for an ambulance.
Phil, from near Maidstone in Kent, said: “While slumped in the driver’s seat, I was fighting to stay conscious. All I could think about was I might not see anyone I love ever again.
"It goes through your mind that I want to speak to my wife again, I want to speak to my children, but you don’t know if you’re going to.”
Emergency services eventually saved his life, taking him in for heart surgery.
Wait for NHS care has cost 30,000 lives
Hospital waits and 999 delays have cost 30,000 lives from heart attacks and strokes since the pandemic, the British Heart Foundation has warned.
Since the pandemic began there have been 30,000 “excess deaths” involving heart disease — or 230 more people dying every week — compared to previous years.
Average ambulance response times for suspected heart attacks have risen to 48 minutes against a maximum standard of 18 minutes for such 999 calls.
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said: “Many more are completely unaware they now have a condition putting them at a greater risk of early death from a heart attack or stroke.”
An NHS spokesman said: “There has been a significant increase in referrals for cardiac care over the last year and staff are making progress on the longest waiters.”
Service in £7bn funds cut
Waiting times could rise further as the NHS faces a £7billion real-terms funding cut due to inflation.
The Government is not expected to fill the black hole despite an emergency services logjam.
NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard said: “When I started this job, I think I said at the time I thought that the pandemic would be the hardest thing any of us ever had to do.
“Over the last year, I’ve become really clear... it’s where we are now. It’s the months and years ahead that will bring the most complex challenges.”
But a government spokesman said: “The NHS resource budget in England is currently at £152billion and will increase to over £162billion in 2024-25, the highest in any Government’s history.”
