Ambulance waits down by nearly an hour in a month

Ambulance crews reached emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes one hour quicker in January than December in England, figures show.

They took 32 minutes on average, compared with more than 90 the month before.

The target is 18 minutes but January's average was the quickest for 19 months.

A&E waiting times also improved, with just over a quarter of patients waiting longer than four hours - down from more than a third in December.

But Society for Acute Medicine president Dr Tim Cooksley said wait times remained "intolerable".

And he highlighted the waits the sickest and most frail were facing for a bed on a ward.

Nearly four out of every 10 patients waited over four hours on trolleys and in corridors.

"The fundamental problem remains a significant shortage of workforce, leading to woefully inadequate inpatient bed and social-care capacity," Dr Cooksley added.

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Source: BBC News, 9 February 2023