Bedford Lib Dems call for emergency five-point plan as deadly ambulance delays grip local health services

Bedford Liberal Democrats have today called on the Government to introduce a new Community Ambulance Fund to invest in ambulance services, as the latest figures reveal 61 patients were stuck for more than an hour in ambulances outside Bedfordshire A&Es in the last week alone.

New official figures published today reveal that ambulance response times to emergency 999 calls are exceeding government pledges in the East of England. In November, the average response time for Category 2 calls (emergency calls involving a serious condition that may require rapid assessment and/or urgent transport, such as a stroke or chest pain) was 51:48 - almost triple the 18-minute target.

Meanwhile, 158 patients in Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust waited more than 30 minutes to be handed over from an ambulance to A&E last week - 61 of them were waiting for more than an hour.

The findings come a month after the Liberal Democrats secured confirmation from the Government that the East of England Ambulance Trust is now at REAP Level 4 - the highest alert level, indicating "extreme pressure" - along with all other ambulance trusts in England. Both the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives and the College of Paramedics have warned that delays are causing patients harm and putting them at risk.

In response to today's alarming figures, the Liberal Democrats have set out an emergency five-point plan to tackle the growing crisis of ambulance delays that is leaving seriously ill patients in Bedford Borough waiting hours to be treated. In addition to setting up a new Ambulance Community Fund, the plan includes calling in the army to help drive ambulances, launching an official inquiry, passing a new law to increase transparency over waiting times, and launching a new campaign to recruit more paramedics and other ambulance staff in Bedford Borough.

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Health OSC, Councillor Dean Crofts said:

"Residents are watching loved ones in agony and distress, waiting hours for an ambulance or stuck in the back of one outside our local hospital. Some have even watched them die. This is heartbreaking and it cannot go on.

"The Conservatives have run our NHS services into the ground, breaking waiting time promises for years and years. Our ambulance staff and NHS workers have worked incredibly hard in extremely difficult circumstances and they need urgent support from central government.

"Our plan would relieve some of the immediate pressure and help fix the ambulance crisis for good, so that the people of Bedford Borough know that they can get to hospital in an ambulance and receive the care they deserve when they need to."