Yorkshire Ambulance Service criticised over longest call wait times in England

An ambulance

Yorkshire Ambulance Service had the longest call wait times in England in May, June, July and September

At a glance

  • People calling for an ambulance in Yorkshire had to wait an average of 106 seconds for an answer - compared with a national average of 45 seconds

  • The service had the longest average call wait time in May, June, July and September, figures from NHS England show

  • One patient in Leeds lay needing critical help for 11 minutes before the call was eventually answered

  • A spokesperson for the ambulance trust said there was a high demand for services and more call handlers were being recruited

An ambulance service has been criticised for putting lives at risk by not answering 999 emergency calls quickly enough.

New figures show Yorkshire Ambulance Service took an average of 106 seconds to answer emergency calls in September, compared with the national average of 45 seconds - the longest of any ambulance service in England.

The service said it was experiencing a "high demand" for help, answering more than 3,800 calls a day, adding it was in the process of recruiting more call handlers.

One caller, Andrea Goldthorp, said she had been left "traumatised" after she waited more than 11 minutes for a call to be answered while her husband, John, was in cardiac arrest in Leeds in the summer.

Mr Goldthorp fell ill during a game of cricket in July, leading to his team mates calling 999 for an ambulance.

While waiting for the call to be answered, Mrs Goldthorp managed to restart her husband's heart using a defibrillator owned by the cricket club.

She said if they had been forced to rely on the ambulance service to give them a code for the defibrillator's cabinet, it could have been "too late".

Andrea Goldthorp restarted her husband's heart with a defibrillator while waiting for a 999 call to be answered

"What if we didn't have a defibrillator nearby? What happens if the steward didn't have the number?" she said.

"The defib would have been sat in a locked cabinet and we wouldn't have been able to get access to it."

Mr Goldthorp was brought back to consciousness before the 999 call was answered and is now recovering at home.

'Distressing for patients'

Latest figures from NHS England show Yorkshire Ambulance Service had the longest call wait times in May, June and July, and the second longest wait in August.

In September, a total of 73,430 emergency calls for were answered by Yorkshire Ambulance Service, figures show.

Nick Smith, executive director of operations at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said the number of calls into its operations centres had been increasing since May.

“We understand how distressing this can be for callers and patients and are doing all we can to address this issue.

"This includes taking on additional emergency call handlers and, during the last five months, we have recruited and trained an extra 68 colleagues."

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