Ambulance delays killed at least 500 Brits last year, damning investigation reveals 

At least 500 Britons died last year as ambulance delays reached record levels, a study found.

In 2022, there were 511 deaths in England after 999 crews took longer than the intended times to arrive at the scene.

The figure, including victims of heart attacks, strokes and traffic accidents, is more than double the 220 known similar deaths recorded in 2021.

Ambulance delays reached record levels last year, when the crippled health service ran out of beds, forcing paramedics to queue outside hospitals with their patient for their entire shift — rather than responding to incoming emergency calls.

Ambulance bosses and unions have said the “completely preventable” deaths are putting “unbearable strain” on the victims’ staff and families.

The NHS did not comment directly on the numbers, but pointed to ‘incredible pressure’ due to record demand, the Covid and flu twinning, strikes and bed blockers.

Dr. Adrian Boyle, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told the paper: ‘These more than 500 deaths a year when an ambulance doesn’t get there in time are tragic and avoidable.

“These figures are very worrying. This is the equivalent of several planes crashing.’

The protector research collected data from ambulance trusts on deaths following delays and also examined the outcome of coroner’s inquiries.

However, the figure of 511 is believed to be an underestimation, as only three of the ten ambulance services in England have provided full data to the newspaper over the past two years.

From this published data, data could be collected for four other ambulance trusts.

But three trusts – London, East Midlands and East of England – have not provided or published the data, even though they are required to do so to improve care, according to The Guardian.

And Dr. Boyle warned in January that up to 500 people a week were dying this winter due to emergency room delays. However, this figure also included those who experienced long emergency room wait times.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) and the Yorkshire Ambulance Service both recorded 70 deaths due to ambulance delays. The figure is more than three times that of WMAS in 2021.

Nearly half of ambulance delay fatalities (248) were recorded by the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS). The figure is double the 122 deaths due to delays in 2021.

They hit category one callers — calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries — and category two, which includes heart attacks, strokes and epilepsy.

For Category One emergencies, paramedics must be on scene within seven minutes. For category two, that is 18 minutes.

However, at the worst point of this winter, category one waiting times reached almost 11 minutes, while category two exceeded one hour and 32 minutes.

The latest NHS data for February shows improvements. Waiting times in category one averaged 8 minutes and 30 seconds, while category two averaged 32 minutes and 20 seconds.

The Guardian inquiry found that one of the fatalities was 31-year-old Aaron Morris, who died last July after an accident while riding a motorcycle in County Durham.

NEAS took 49 minutes and 49 seconds to respond – despite receiving six calls for help.

Aaron Morris (pictured with wife Samantha), 31, who died in a motorcycle accident while cycling near his home in Esh Winning, County Durham

The agency’s own investigation found that Mr Morris was not assigned an ambulance until 25 minutes after the initial call and there was a 95 per cent chance he would have survived the collision had there been no delay.

Stephen Segasby, chief operating office of NEAS, offered his “heartfelt and heartfelt condolences to Aaron’s loved ones.”

Rita Taylor, 84, who died after suffering a head injury from a fall at her home in Milton Keynes in October, was one of the other ambulance delay fatalities.

An ambulance was called at 10:28 a.m. but did not arrive until 5:17 p.m. “due to a lack of resources,” which meant there were “a number of missed opportunities to hospitalize her and begin her treatment,” concluded a coroner.

She died in hospital on the day of her fall, after a CT scan showed she had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

The coroner released a report on the prevention of future deaths – which coroners are required to consult if they believe action is needed to prevent further deaths in the same circumstances – which was sent to Health Secretary Will Quince in January .

Andrew Cox, the senior coroner for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, sent a report on preventing future deaths to Health Secretary Steve Barclay in November after carrying out a ‘series’ of inquiries that found delays in the arrival of ambulances had caused the deaths or contributed to it.

These include cases where ambulances took up to 19 hours to arrive.

Lawrence Turner, the GMB union’s head of policy and research, told The Guardian that the numbers expose the brutal reality in ambulance services.

He said: ‘The horrific magnitude of this loss of life is placing an unbearable strain on staff and patients’ loved ones. This is a hidden scandal and unfortunately we know that the real number of deaths will be much higher. More than half of the GMB ambulance members have witnessed a fatal accident due to delay.’

Ambulance chiefs have blamed crews trapped outside A&E units, leading to delayed responses, as the main reason for patient deaths – rather than understaffing or money.

However, NHS bosses blame a spike in demand for care leading to overcrowded hospitals and emergency departments, along with years of underfunding and understaffing.

An NHS spokesperson said: ‘NHS staff have worked exceptionally hard, especially all winter, to continue to provide care to patients despite record demand, industrial action, a “twindemic” of Covid and flu, and limited capacity due to thousands of beds admitted daily. by patients who are medically fit to be discharged.

“Despite this incredible strain on services, which has continued this year, the NHS has significantly improved ambulance performance over the past two months with response times for Category 2 calls being an hour faster in January and February than in December.

“We know there is more to do, which is why last month the NHS launched its emergency and urgent care recovery plan, outlining how we plan to reduce waiting times and increase capacity, with hundreds of extra ambulances, thousands of extra beds and more use of measures such as urgent community response teams.’

The Ministry of Health and Social Care said: ‘Our sympathy goes out to the family and friends of those who have lost loved ones.

“No one should wait longer than necessary in the emergency room and we are taking urgent action to reduce waiting times.

“We have put in place a plan to deliver one of the fastest and longest lasting improvements in emergency waiting times in NHS history, backed by record funding.”