Warning over ambulance waiting times for heart attacks and strokes

We have responded to latest NHS England figures revealing dangerously long ambulance waiting times for heart attacks and strokes, and an ever-growing backlog of cardiac care.

The average ambulance response time for category 2 calls (which includes suspected heart attacks and strokes) is 40 minutes in England – more than double the 18-minute target.

However, waiting times vary by region. The region with the highest average ambulance response time for category 2 calls is the South West, where the average time is 56 minutes.

The NHSE figures also reveal:

• Cardiac waiting lists grew to a record 319,366 people at the end of April in England, nearly 10,000 more than the previous month, and the 22nd consecutive month where an increase has been seen.
• 4,836 people had been waiting over a year as of April –  around 170 times higher than before the pandemic began when just 28 people were waiting this long.
• 95 people have been waiting over two years for heart care – nobody had waited two years pre-pandemic.
• 30 per cent of people on waiting lists for potentially lifesaving heart care in England have been waiting over four months – a total of 96,321.

Our comment

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, our Associate Medical Director and Consultant Cardiologist, said: “Minutes matter when you’re having a heart attack or stroke, and timely treatment could be the difference between life and death.

"That is why it’s so serious that we continue to see dangerously high average ambulance waiting times and ever-growing waiting lists for time-critical cardiac care, despite NHS staff doing all they can.

“Unless this is urgently addressed, we will see yet more avoidable heart attacks, disabling heart failure, and even premature death.

"Heart disease is still one of the country’s biggest killers – the NHS needs significant help from Government now, with a strategy for cardiovascular care that ensures there are enough heart doctors, nurses and cardiac physiologists, and enough funding now and in future.”

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