Patients are being forced to wait up to an hour and a half for 999 calls to be answered, new figures show. And those phoning 111 are waiting up to three hours before the phone is picked up.
As the NHS faces a mounting crisis, data shows patients are also facing record-long waits for ambulances. Figures for December revealed it took an average of 90 minutes for ambulances to reach those with conditions such as heart attacks and strokes – despite the NHS recommending help within 18 minutes.
The figures come as the health service is under severe strain, with ambulance staff, nurses and doctors having staged a series of strikes since last year over pay and working conditions.
The health service had already been pushed to breaking point by three years of the Covid pandemic as well as staff shortages and overcrowded hospitals. The latest figures lay bare the depth of the crisis in ambulance services.
More than 50,000 callers requesting ambulances were left waiting for five minutes or longer before being answered. The figure may even appear low as the NHS does not publish the number of people who hang up the phone before anybody picks up.
Those calling 111 whose symptoms required a callback were left waiting more than a day to hear from the service. One patient in the northwest of England was left waiting more than 40 hours to discuss their symptoms with a qualified clinician, while people in other parts of the country were forced to wait as long as 30 hours.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said the figures, obtained by Labour through freedom of information requests, demonstrated “13 years of Conservative mismanagement” of the NHS.
He said: “Patients can no longer be sure their 999 call will be answered or that an ambulance will arrive when they need one. People are just praying they don’t fall ill or suffer an accident.
“Labour will launch the biggest expansion of NHS staff training in history, paid for by abolishing non-doms, so that the NHS is there for us when we need it once again.”
The figures came a day after the party revealed some patients have been left waiting more than two days for an ambulance in England.
It also emerged this month that lengthy delays in ambulance services in the UK are forcing a majority of Britons to make their own way to the hospital during a health emergency.
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “If Labour were serious about cutting waiting lists they wouldn’t be voting to send doctors into retirement.
“As always with Labour, it’s puerile political gameplaying, not serious plans.”
