Patients waiting 10 minutes for 999 calls to be answered

Some people calling 999 are having to wait up to 10 minutes before their call is answered. Staff have warned patients may be coming to harm, and may be even dying as a result of the delays and with paramedics also reporting it's taking as long as 24 hours for some ambulances to reach patients. 

One paramedic has told The Independent, “We are stacking over 500 jobs, with patients waiting hours for an ambulance response. That includes elderly vulnerable people who have fallen but only merit a category three, so their calls are routinely pushed further and further down the queue. In the last few days, I've been to patients waiting 11 or 13 hours. And just to be clear: this is not the hospitals’ fault. The system is profoundly broken.”

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Source: The Independent, 22 July 2021