The pressure on the NHS ambulance services is increasing. Recent figures showed that of the UK’s 13 ambulance services, only Wales was reaching emergencies within the target time of eight minutes. They also showed that the number of patients waiting for ambulances for more than an hour had almost tripled in the past two years, and that ambulance crews were wasting more than 500,000 hours queuing outside hospitals.
Keith Willett, the director of acute care at NHS England has called it, “a system-wide problem … it is about an increase in demand for urgent healthcare need. Of all the parts of the healthcare sector, the ambulance service has seen the largest increase in demand at 7.3% in the last year.”
Paramedics too have reported working under tremendous pressure as a result of increasing demand. Many say they continue working well past the end of their 12-hour shifts, and rarely get meal breaks. So what impact is this having on patients?
Share your experiences
We’d like to find out what it’s like to receive care. We also want to hear from those working in the service about their daily challenges. What have patients experienced? What impact did it have? What parts of the service are effective and what’s not working so well? What worries you about the future?
Share your views and stories in the form below. The information you give us will be confidential and we will be in contact with you before we publish any contributions.
Ambulance services in the UK: share your stories and experiences
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