Ambulance Response Standards Failing in England Due to High Demand

Overcrowding, long waiting times and insufficient staffing levels are the most common problems concerning performance at Accident and Emergency units across NHS England.

EDINBURGH, January 21 (Sputnik) — A combination of overcrowding, extended waiting times and a shortage of staff are behind a decline in performance at Accident and Emergency (A&E) units across NHS England, a spokeswoman for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) told Sputnik on Wednesday.

"Overcrowding, long waiting times and insufficient staffing levels were the most common problems," Lauren Haslehurst of the CQC, the regulator that monitors standards in the NHS, told Sputnik.

The Care Quality Commission was commenting after the Independent newspaper highlighted the case of one man, 38-year-old Mthuthuzeli Mpongwana from Bristol, who waited five hours for an ambulance to take him to hospital. Two days after being admitted Mpongwana died. His wife Lisa Mpongwana told the newspaper she believed her husband would still be alive if the ambulance had arrived sooner.

"Of the hospitals rated up to the end of August 2014, A&E had the highest proportion of inadequate ratings and the second lowest proportion of good or outstanding ratings of the core services we inspect," Haslehurst said, adding, however, that the problems in A&E departments are partly due to staff in other departments "not actively facilitating the transfer of patients out of A&E."

Mpongwana was not available for interview, but Martin Callow of South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust told Sputnik that his organization had extended its condolences to Mpongwana's family.

Callow added he could not comment further on the specifics of the case given an investigation was underway and a Coroners' Inquest into the death was expected.

"There may well have been similar occurrences," Callow told Sputnik, adding that the Ambulance Service has been "under extreme pressure" in December and January.

Figures given to Sputnik by the Care Quality Commission confirm that standards within the Ambulance Service are dropping.

Statistics for the last two months on the number of emergency calls received where the caller requested an ambulance are due to be published on Friday, but the latest available figures show there were 770,549 calls to the emergency switchboard in November 2014, or 26,000 per day, a rise of over 11 per cent on the same period the previous year.

Ambulance Services have a target of sending an emergency response ambulance within 8 minutes to 75 per cent of 999 calls, but have consistently failed to meet that target since April 2014.