Helen Morgan responds to new Shropshire ambulance data
MP and health campaigner Helen Morgan has said she remains ‘worried sick’ about emergency care in Shropshire but is relieved that some progress has been made.
18 Dec 2023
Ambulance delays worst on record as patients left waiting for hours in pain
11 Aug 2022
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has called on Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to set out a plan to fix the ambulance crisis, after new NHS figures revealed record delays for heart attack and stroke patients.
People suffering suspected heart attacks or strokes in the West Midlands waited an average of 59 minutes and 55 seconds for an ambulance in July. These are deemed Category Two where the target is to respond to all calls in an average of 18 minutes.
The previous record in the West Midlands was set in March this year (57 minutes and 36 seconds). In July last year the average wait was 30 minutes and 38 seconds and in July 2019 it was 12 minutes and 58 seconds.
Specific figures for Shropshire are not yet available, however delays in the county have consistently been significantly worse than in urban parts of the West Midlands such as the Black Country and Birmingham.
The Liberal Democrats are demanding urgent funding for overstretched ambulance services, along with an inquiry by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Helen Morgan, North Shropshire MP and Liberal Democrat Communities and Local Government Spokesperson, said: “Behind these figures lie heartbreaking stories of people left waiting hours in pain and distress for an ambulance to arrive. It is utterly shocking that when people call 999 they can no longer be confident that they will get the emergency care they need.
“This Conservative government has neglected local health services for years and now patients are paying the price.
“People arriving at Shrewsbury or Telford hospitals are greeted by a line of ambulances waiting to handover patients in need of attention. This is the outcome of failures across the system.
“Liz Truss herself has admitted that under the Conservatives people are facing appalling ambulance delays. Yet neither she nor Rishi Sunak have set out a credible plan to solve this crisis.
“We need emergency funding now to support overstretched ambulance services along with an official CQC inquiry into how to fix these appalling delays.”
For the most urgent call outs (Category One) average response times in England were the joint worst on record at 9 minutes 35 seconds, matching the previous record set in March.
In the West Midlands the average Category One response time was 8 minutes and 17 seconds.
It comes after West Midlands Ambulance Service warned 48,000 hours of ambulance response time were likely to be lost in July due to ambulances being stuck outside full A&E units waiting to handover patients.
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