Ambulance Waiting Times An Emergency?

With thousands of people left for hours, some in excruciating pain, our ambulance service has reached a crisis point

- Ashleigh Page, Judy Broadbent

While many of us move on from the pandemic, restriction-free and without having to wear masks, the NHS is still living through the horror.

Backdated referrals, long-awaited operations, upwards of 13,000 people still being hospitalised each week with COVID-19*, as well as almost 14,000 nurses leaving the profession in 2021 alone.

Our emergency services were struggling even before the pandemic – and now they’re at crisis point.

Staff shortages coupled with increased demand has seen ambulance waiting times skyrocket, and lives are being put at risk as a result.

Now, volunteers are even being recruited to drive patients to A&E. But even after arriving at hospital, many patients are waiting in ambulances for hours due to a lack of beds.

We speak to one woman whose elderly mother was left lying on the floor waiting for an ambulance for more than eight hours.

‘SHE WAS LEFT IN AGONY ON THE FLOOR’

Judy Broadbent, 64, is a writer living in Yorkshire.

My mum Margaret was a robust 85-year-old with a passion for life. Never a day went by when Mum did not call me, or I called her, and we were so coordinated that when the phone rang, I always knew it was Mum.

She had a wicked sense of humour, always making her eight grandchildren erupt with laughter. We were best friends, and her charm meant I was one of her many, many friends. So, I could never have imagined the day when she was no longer here or at the end of the phone.