‘Uber ambulance crisis’ forces more people to make OWN Way to A&E

Growing numbers of seriously ill people are making their own way to A&E in what has been called an "Uber ambulance" crisis, because 999 response times are too slow.

- Denis Campbell 

A&E doctors said that while they understood people were acting out of "desperation", they were taking a serious risk with their health, especially if they were driving.

NHS data obtained by the Liberal Democrats shows that 504,276 people in need of "very urgent emergency care" made their own way to A&E in England during 2023. That was 141,345 (39%) more than the 362,931 who got there without an ambulance in 2019.

There has been a sharp rise in older people taking such action. Almost one in five (96,000) of those who went to A&E last year on their own or with a companion were 65 or older up 45% since 2019.

However, the true number of patients doing so is almost certainly much higher, as only 53 of the 140 NHS trusts from which the Lib Dems sought figures provided a full dataset.