Over 50 people have died due to a secret policy to not send ambulances to terminally ill patients in England. A policy clandestinely introduced by National Health Service of U.K. downgraded emergency calls placed to 999 in "the most cruel form of rationing imaginable," according to The Telegraph.
East of England ambulance trust admitted the new policy affected 8,000 people since it had been implemented and an internal report by NHS reveals 57 patient deaths following downgraded calls.
Those with life-threatening illnesses either had to wait an hour for an ambulance or suffer a 20 minute wait just for a call back. Comparably, typical EMT response time is eight minutes, according to The Telegraph.
Two months passed before worries were voiced to senior managers that the new policy allowed cardiac arrest patients to die without treatment or prompt response.
The policy was suspended in February 2014, but the internal NHS document has only recently surfaced. The document lists 21 types of calls that would be considered eligible for downgrade. The ambulance trust blamed call center managers for making policy changes without getting senior management's approval, according to The Telegraph.
Shadow Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham expects Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to order a full independent investigation. "Withholding ambulances from terminally ill people is the most cruel form of rationing imaginable," Burnham said, according to The Telegraph.
Hunt noted that, otherwise, 999 was doing a good job handling a 25 percent increase in serious calls last year while maintaining a rate of 8-minute dispatches in 22 percent of calls. Hunt accused Burnham of "trying to weaponise the NHS," according to The Telegraph. He added: "That is a record of an ambulance service doing very well under a lot of pressure and I just say to you, you should be getting behind the paramedics and the ambulance services and not trying to politicize the issue."
