BHF comment
BHF responds to the ambulance and emergency heart care crisis
Soaring staff shortages, rising numbers of Covid hospitalisations, and increasingly over-stretched ambulance services are adding up to an NHS in crisis across the UK.
According to media reports, several NHS trusts have declared critical incidents, and a leaked internal note from an NHS foundation trust has suggested that emergency service call handlers may have to ask friends or family to take a patient to hospital when there was likely to be a delay.
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, our Chief Executive, said: “The NHS is under siege, and we're seriously concerned that even life saving emergency care for people with suspected heart attacks and strokes is so disrupted that some patients have reportedly been asked to take themselves to hospital.
“A perfect storm of pressure on the NHS from rising Covid cases, soaring staff absences, and long ambulance delays is forcing the health service into impossible situations.
“Heart attacks and strokes are medical emergencies, and a fast response that gets the right person to the right hospital department at the right time in an ambulance could be the difference between life and death.
"The Government must step in urgently to address the dangerous impact on emergency heart attack and stroke care to avoid putting more lives at risk.
“If you or a loved one experiences the symptoms of a heart attack or stroke, call 999 immediately. This is still what's recommended, and it could save your life.”