PEOPLE are waiting more than five hours for an ambulance — putting lives at risk, damning figures show.
More than 4,000 patients a week wait more than an hour after a heart attack, stroke or other major emergency.
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There were 385,000 waits exceeding an hour for “category two” calls from January 2018 to September 2019.
These include heart attacks if still conscious, stroke, blood poisoning, major burns, fits and serious injuries without uncontrollable bleeding.
Ambulances should be at these 999 calls within 18 minutes but one in 16 people waits more than three-times longer.
Some waited more than five hours, Freedom of Information requests by the BBC show.
The true scale of the problem is likely to be even bigger because two ambulance trusts refused to provide the figures.
The NHS blamed rising demand and delays handing over patients at A&E.
‘MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH’
Rachel Power, of the Patients Association, warned the delays could be a “matter of life or death”.
Mark MacDonald, of the Stroke Association, called it “alarming” and said: “Around two million neurons are lost every minute that a stroke is untreated.”
Long waits for immediately life-threatening “category one” cases were unusual, with just one in 270 taking longer than 30 minutes.
That works out at less than 40 a week.
East Midlands Ambulance Service had the most long delays, with one in eight waiting more than an hour for help.
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Director of operations Ben Holdaway said crews often face long waits at A&E which means they are unable to return to the road quickly.
The Department of Health said it is increasing funding for the NHS.
It added student paramedics are entitled to a £5,000-a-year grant from September.
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