Heart attack victims face a record 90-minute wait for an ambulance

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Juliette Boveri, chief executive of the Stroke Association, said: “It’s hard not to despair about the state of the health service.

“More than an hour and a half is an unacceptably long wait for an ambulance when you have a stroke. Every minute you wait is a shorter chance of survival or further weeks of rehabilitative treatment. These delays cause severe disability and even death.

“I am deeply concerned that this is a chronic crisis situation for the ambulance service. This has life-threatening consequences for thousands of stroke patients.”

Dr Adrian Boyle, chair of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “December’s performance figures are truly shocking, more than 50 per cent of all patients face a wait of more than four hours, and nearly 55,000 patients face a 12-hour wait from decision to admission. .”

He warned that such waiting times are “the tip of the iceberg”, given that many would have waited for hours before a decision was made to be recognized, adding: “We need long-term sustainable political will, engagement, and investment in the health and social care service to tackle the roots of These problems – and more importantly, we need honest language about the depth of this crisis.

“We no longer have time for inaction and unfulfilled promises.”

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS National Medical Director, said: “While staff responded to emergency check-ins, 999 calls and emergency ambulance calls responded, the ‘double pandemic’ has led to unprecedented levels of respiratory disease. At the hospital, they also continue to help patients with more people than ever before receiving diagnostic tests and cancer treatment.

“These numbers show just how seriously our people are working, not only in the face of extreme pressure but also in reducing the Covid backlog and screening more people for cancer than ever before in one month.

“The NHS will keep its foot on the accelerator to continue to make progress on the Covid backlog, and hospitals were asked today to ensure that anyone waiting more than 18 months books their treatment before March.”

It comes a day after up to 25,000 ambulance workers went on strike in a dispute with the government over wages.

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