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Sufferers within the West Midlands, together with a few of these struggling coronary heart assaults, are being requested to get themselves to hospital amid worsening pressures on ambulance providers this winter.
The West Midlands Ambulance Service has suggested its 999 name handlers to ask sufferers if they will make their very own technique to the hospital when providers are beneath excessive demand.
In accordance with stories in The Sunday Instances a memo was despatched to employees explaining the change was wanted as a consequence of delays in sufferers getting an ambulance.
The memo stated class three and 4 sufferers – those that have fallen or are vomiting – might be informed: “The ambulance service is beneath important strain, and we don’t have an ambulance accessible to reply to you. It might be quite a few hours earlier than one is on the market.”
“Is there any means you may prepare to soundly make your individual technique to a hospital emergency division?”
All ambulance providers have adjusted their steerage for name handlers, in keeping with the stories.
West Midlands Ambulance Service confirmed that in some instances it’s asking folks if they will make their very own technique to hospital, and if they will’t, assist might be organized.
Have you ever been affected by this? E mail rebecca.thomas@impartial.co.uk
The warning comes after knowledge this week confirmed the time spent by ambulances ready exterior A&Es final week was virtually double the quantity in comparison with the earlier winter.
Information from the Affiliation of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) exhibits in October, 25,506 sufferers waited greater than two hours in ambulances exterior hospitals – up from 20,541 in October 2023.
As a result of delays in handing off sufferers to A&E, ambulance providers misplaced greater than 12,000 hours of time, in keeping with AACE.
AACE estimates counsel round 25,000 sufferers got here to hurt as a consequence of handover delays in September, and of these, 4,000 are prone to have skilled extreme hurt.
Chatting with The Impartial, Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal School of Emergency Drugs, warned emergency care deaths would rise this 12 months if lengthy stays in A&E elevated, after the federal government didn’t decide to assembly A&E targets in its six key pledges this week.
Figures printed by the NHS on Thursday confirmed the variety of sufferers in hospital final week with flu was 4 instances the quantity recorded in the identical week final 12 months.
The West Midlands Ambulance Service stated: “Our employees and volunteers throughout the service are working exceptionally exhausting to get to sufferers as rapidly as attainable. Sadly, we’re seeing some sufferers wait for much longer for a response than we’d need because of hospital handover delays, for which we apologise.
“When ambulances are delayed handing their affected person over at hospital, they’re unable to reply to the following name, which impacts on the care of sufferers locally. There’s a direct correlation between hospital handover delays and our capacity to get to sufferers locally rapidly.”
