There are still hundreds of people waiting for ambulances despite the 999 service's desperate plea to only call in the event of a life-threatening emergency. The service issued a plea last night (December 12) asking members of the public to only call the emergency line if absolutely necessary.
North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) bosses also apologised for delays, as they said the service was extremely stretched across the region. NWAS chiefs said that at 5pm yesterday, more than 600 poorly patients were waiting for an ambulance across the North West.
At the same time, another 100 emergency vehicles were parked outside of hospitals waiting to take patients inside. Now, NWAS has issued an update saying there are still some 300 emergency calls waiting to be taken in the region, more than 300 patients waiting for an ambulance, and over 40 emergency vehicles suffering 'substantial waits' to handover patients to hospital medics.
