Ambulance delays are indicative of our broken healthcare system - Jayne Dowle

I stayed a further 20 minutes or so with mum and only as I left did the ambulance arrive, screeching to a halt outside, the paramedics jumping out almost before the vehicle had stopped.

As I drove away, I wondered about that ill and vulnerable person, and felt so sorry for the care home staff, and the paramedics, who were no doubt all doing their best.

When I got home, I nipped around to my elderly neighbours with a Christmas card and a festive plant I’d chosen for them. As I knocked on the back door I could see their son on the phone through the kitchen window, anxiety etched on his face. He shouted that his 80-year-old father, who had been growing increasingly frail for some months, had become unresponsive.

They too had been waiting for 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Eventually it did; my neighbour died of an infection in hospital a week later.

Two scenes of fear and panic in one evening. Carers and family members at their wits end, desperately waiting for an overstretched emergency service to turn up. A bad night for local ambulances, or a shocking indication of the health of the NHS?

Long waits for ambulances were one of four major concerns raised by a new survey, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the PA news agency, which found that an overwhelming 83 per cent of British people are worried about the NHS. Along with A&E waiting times (highlighted by 68 per cent of respondents), long waits for GP appointments (63 per cent) and planned hospital appointments (62 per cent), ambulances were an issue for another 62 per cent of those surveyed.

Whilst Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer devotes his first major speech of 2025 to yet another slew of promises on health, the ambulance service in so many parts of the country is literally grinding to a halt.

Instead of prepping yet another grinding performative exercise, bulging with meaningless milestones, mission statements, pledges and targets, Starmer should have been in that care home, or in my neighbour’s kitchen that December night.

Perhaps his government should, for the remainder of this winter at least, focus attention on this aspect of the NHS instead of launching spurious initiatives to cut the backlog of six million people waiting for treatment and care.

Starmer’s latest ‘big idea’, providing direct referrals for tests and scans for ear, nose and throat, gynaecological, urological, bowel and lung conditions, without seeing a consultant first, at new clinics operating seven days a week, 12 hours a day, have been roundly criticised as ill-thought out.

Starmer has also pledged that by July 2029, 92 per cent of patients would be seen within 18 weeks for pre-planned care such as hip and knee replacements. Sorry to be blunt, but such pledges are empty. It is not in the Prime Minister’s power to promise all this; the broken NHS needs serious root and branch reform.

To this end, the government is seeking to address the state of the NHS with a 10 Year Health Plan, expected to be published in the spring. It’s reported that this will focus on ill-health prevention, digital technologies and shifting more care from hospitals into the community.

Yet only a quarter of those surveyed were aware of such a thing. Half said they were not confident that the Government’s plans for the NHS will lead to any improvements in the next five years. Their concerns are more immediate; will an ambulance come when it’s called, before it’s too late? And when it arrives at the hospital, how quickly will the patient receive treatment?

According to an investigation by The Guardian newspaper, more than 1,000 patients a day in England suffer potential harm due to ambulance handover delays. In the past year (to November 2024), more than 414,000 patients experienced delays, with 44,409 suffering severe harm, including long-term effects or death.

During the same period, in total, ambulances spent more than 1.5 million hours waiting outside A&Es to offload patients. These are shocking figures and the Prime Minister, and his Health Secretary, Wes Streeting are derelict in their duty if they gloss over them in favour of telling us we’ll soon be able to get an Xray on our gouty big toe in our lunch hour.