..IN THE
NEWS...IN THE NEWS THOUSANDS OF EMERGENCY PATIENTS TOLD TO
TAKE A TAXI TO HOSPITAL EACH YEAR, FIGURES SHOW
Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospi- tal, figures have shown. According to the Independent, the number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as de- mand for services grows. It comes after the pressures on para- medics were re- cently highlighted when a woman with a broken ankle spent six hours lying on a freezing pave- ment and later died
in hospital. In London, official figures obtained by The Times showed a 35 per cent fall in the number of emer- gency patients getting a cab in the past year. However, the way the statis- tics are recorded in the capital has changed. The number of patients enduring long delays in am- bulances also tripled in the past year, according to data from seven out of England’s ten ambu- lance trusts. In a recent week 4,469 people had to wait an hour or
more in ambulances outside A&E depart- ments, the data showed. The North West Ambulance Service advised 104 patients in the most seriously ill category and 2,305 in the second most serious to take taxis in 2018 – amounting to 0.7 per cent of calls. The service said it had strict guidelines on ensuring patients were “stable” before letting them make their own way to hospital. At the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), 1.5 per cent of calls resulted in
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the patient being taken to hospital by taxi. London Ambulance Service reported 0.5 per cent of callers taking a taxi. NEAS said 80 per cent of patients taken by taxi had a face-to-face assess- ment by a rapid response para- medic, who often arrives by motor- bike, to ensure they were fit enough to travel by cab. The rest were assessed over the phone. Some services said that they had approved taxi com- panies for such cases and some said
they arranged the taxis rather than leaving it to the caller. Separately,
The
Times also found that across nine ambulance trusts last year more than 305,000 emergency 999 calls were answered by private or volunteer ambu- lances. This account- ed for about 3.5 per cent of calls, an increase from about 2.4 per cent in 2017. In 2017 the Care Quality Commission warned that private ambulances risked patient safety after it found that some vehicles were dirty
and some drivers lacked the appropri- ate training to drive under blue lights. An NHS spokesper- son said: “Ambul- ance services are expanding and are responding to more and more calls, and last month respond- ed to almost 25,000 incidents every day, more than five per cent higher than last year. It can be en- tirely sensible for some patients to make their own way to hospital, which means paramedics are able to priori- tise sick patients who need their expertise.”
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