Brief by Shorts91NewsDesk / 06:57am on 06 Apr 2025,Sunday Health & Wellness
A Unison survey of nearly 600 ambulance workers in England reveals that severe A&E delays force crews to provide prolonged care in ambulances, leading to patient deterioration and fatalities. 77% of respondents managed patients in ambulances due to extended waits, with 68% caring for multiple patients in hospital corridors. Alarmingly, 5% reported patient deaths during these delays. Ambulances have waited over 12 hours to offload patients, far exceeding the NHS target of 15-30 minutes. In the year leading to November 2024, ambulances spent over 1.5 million hours queuing outside A&Es, affecting more than 414,000 patients, with over 44,000 suffering severe harm. Unison warns this "car park care" is unsustainable, as frontline staff express frustration over their inability to respond to critical incidents due to persistent handover delays. (PC: The Guardian)
