West Midlands Ambulance Service apologises over response delays

West Midlands Ambulance Service says it is looking at new ways to speed up hand over delays at hospitals

An ambulance service has apologised to two people who had long waits for paramedics amid high demand on the NHS.

Community nurse Claire, 49, from Stoke-on-Trent, performed CPR on her neighbour on 8 June but was unable to save him as she waited for help.

And Gareth, 27, of Solihull, waited 18 hours for an ambulance to come for his 83-year-old father after a fall.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said crews were being delayed by long waits to hand over patients at hospitals.

Claire, who did not want to give her surname, tried to help her 59-year-old neighbour who had collapsed.

WMAS said staff reached the man in 55 minutes.

"We would like to offer our sincere condolences to the family of the patient and apologise for the length of time it took us to arrive," WMAS said.

Claire told the Press Association: "It was a category two call; they should've been there in 18 minutes.

"I did everything I could, but obviously you think about things after and whether anything could've been done to create a different outcome. It's extremely sad."

"I have no blame at all for the ambulance service," she said, adding, crews were "working under incredibly difficult circumstances".

"But patients are potentially dying that might not have died if the ambulance had been able to get to them in time," she said.

'Excruciating pain'

Gareth, a support worker who did not want to give his full name, rang 999 just before 15:00 BST on Friday 8 July after his father Barry fell from his mobility scooter on a street near his home.

He said he told an operator his father may have a broken hip and was "extremely exhausted", and was told to wait and not move him.

"My dad was in excruciating pain and the phone call wasn't that helpful as they told me it could take up to five hours," he said.

WMAS said a crew was eventually sent to the home at 10:18 BST the following day.

All ambulance services in England have been put on the highest alert level, Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) 4, because of extremely high demand, which has been made worse by the current heatwave.

WMAS has been at REAP 4 since March.

A WMAS spokesman added pressures in health and social care were "leading to long hospital handover delays with our crews left caring for patients that need admitting to hospital rather than responding to the next call".

"We are working incredibly hard with all of our NHS and social care partners to prevent these delays, looking at new ways to safely hand over patients quickly so that our crews can respond more rapidly and save more lives," he said.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, shadow healthy secretary Wes Streeting highlighted the case of one crew in the West Midlands having to wait 26 hours outside an A&E "because there weren't the clinical staff to hand over to".

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