People with mental illness in England face ‘horrifically long’ ambulance delays

Ambulance services regularly breached response-time targets in emergency and urgent calls to patients with a mental health crisis or severe illness last year. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Ministers have been accused of “sheer neglect” of people with mental illness as figures reveal one patient waited nearly three days for an ambulance to arrive last year.

Data obtained by the Liberal Democrats shows that ambulance services regularly breached response-time targets in emergency and urgent calls to help patients with a mental health crisis or severe illness last year.