Ambulance Delays in Critical Cases

Ambulances took over an hour to reach nearly 3,500 high-priority calls last year, with one case taking almost seven hours and five others over four — raising alarms for critical patients. While delays sometimes stem from calls upgrading in urgency, performance dipped in December: only 62.5% of Purple calls and 37.4% of Red calls met the 19-minute target. Despite handling 450,000 calls — up 5% from the prior year — the service cites aging populations and chronic illness as mounting pressures, investing in staff, budget, and new vehicles to keep pace. They acknowledge that while strict targets exist for the most urgent cases, longer waits must be balanced against real-time clinical needs and demand. Support the show:Get a discount at https://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/15bd3903656ded00