Ambulance delays in the U.K. concern coroners since these could lead to unwanted patient deaths over the winter. Because of this, they decided to write "damning" warnings to the government.
A queue of ambulances is seen outside the Royal London Hospital emergency department on November 24, 2022, in London, England. Over the past week, nearly three in 10 ambulances were caught queuing outside hospitals in England.
British coroners issued their warnings after multiple inquests into patient deaths following ambulance delays. They also unraveled the latest cases—in Birmingham—connected to mental health bed shortages.
UK: Ambulance Delays Concern Coroners
According to The Guardian's latest report, three U.K. coroners sent PFD (prevention of future deaths) reports to Victoria Atkins, the health secretary.
They released their PFD reports after six deaths linked to chronic problems, which present a continuing life-threatening risk to patients.
Two of the coroners said that they were concerned that ambulance delays could make this worse as they are expected to happen again this winter.
In the PFD reports, an emergency medicine consultant said that although ambulance response time was improved over the summer period, 15 to 20 ambulances were seen waiting outside the emergency department for the past few weeks.
One of the PFD reports confirmed that three patients already died because of ambulance delays affecting SWASFT (South West Ambulance Service).
Among the victims was said to have waited for eight hours before the needed ambulance arrived. In another worse case, a patient had to wait for 13 hours.
Health officials and coroners said that these longer ambulance delays are concerning since ambulances are expected to arrive where patients are within 20 minutes.
"It is for you and your department to take the action that is required to resolve the issues and to prevent future patients in the area from dying avoidable deaths," said coroner Andrew Cox in his PFD report sent to the health secretary.
"It is not for me as coroner to make recommendations on how you do that and so I leave that to you," he added.
Eight-Hour Ambulance Delay Blamed for Man's Death
An ambulance drives over Westminster Bridge backdropped by the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known by the name of the bell "Big Ben", and the Palace of Westminster, home to the Houses of Parliament, in central London on January 3, 2023.
BBC reported that a man died after waiting for over eight hours just for an ambulance to arrive. He was identified as 50-year-old Christopher Hart; a resident in Woodbridge, Suffolk.
Because of this, his family is now urging the British government to take action over ambulance delays to avoid unwanted deaths.
Christopher's sister, Sheena Clements, said that losing a family member is one of the hardest things that anyone can experience.
What's sadder about Hart's passing is that the cardiologist informed the victim's family that if he had the medical attention on time, he would have survived; with a 93% to 97% chance of survival.
"All we want is for the government to take notice and do something about it," said Sheena.
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