Suspected heart attack and stroke victims left waiting over 17 hours for an ambulance in Crawley’s region

Labour is pledging to train more doctors and nurses, as new figures show ‘category 2’ patients, which include those suspected of having had a heart attack or stroke, have been left waiting over 17 hours for an ambulance.

Freedom of Information responses reveal that a ‘category 3’ patient was left waiting for two and a half days for an ambulance in December, as waiting times soared to the longest on record. Category 3 patients include those with abdominal pains, in the late stages of labour, burns and diabetic attacks. The Patients should be reached with 2 hours according to the NHS, meaning the patient in the North West was left 32 TIMES longer than they should have been.

Patients in the East Midlands were waiting for up to 51 hours in the same month, while patients with conditions like heart attacks and strokes were not reached for 26 hours in the East Midlands, and more than 21 hours in both Yorkshire and the South East. The NHS targets reaching category 2 patients within 18 minutes, but patients were left waiting 89 TIMES longer than is safe.

Ambulance response times hit record highs this winter, with patients with conditions like strokes and heart attacks waited an hour and a half on average in December. 36,000 patients waited more than three and a half hours in that month alone.

Patients also faced record long waits outside hospitals once ambulances arrived, due to staff and bed shortages, a separate FOI found. One patient waited 40 HOURS in the back of an ambulance outside a hospital in the South West, while patients in the East of England and West Midlands were waiting 36 hours and 32 hours respectively.

In total this winter, 153,000 patients waited for more than an hour in the backs of ambulances outside hospitals. NHS bosses apologised after one patient in Manchester died in the back of an ambulance in October, having arrived at the hospital three hours earlier but couldn’t be admitted due to a lack of beds.