growstuff
I suspect a fall would be a Category 3 call out. The mean waiting time is over 3 hours with 10% of calls taking nearly 9 hours. That's the reality across England. Of course, there will be anecdotes of some call outs taking much less than that and it's all a bit of a postcode lottery anyway.
Yes, a fall is usually a category 3 - unless the patient isn't breathing. Which of course makes sense.
But doesn't allow for other conditions - which may not be recognisable by someone attending a person waiting for an ambulance, or the patient themselves, but can be life-threatening.
Someone I know had an ambulance called due to excruciating abdominal pains with vomiting which got steadily worse. The ambulance arrived hours later and too late to get her into hospital to deal with what turned out to be a perforated intestine from a bowel obstruction. She died from Sepsis.
People have died and will continue to die as a result of the delays.
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch watchdog has called for immediate action by Mr Javid’s department to reduce the risk of patient harm from delayed ambulance handovers. This storm has been brewing for a decade. Austerity has shrunk hospitals so much that they lack the space to accommodate urgent admissions. Care services are too shrivelled to help. The upshot is patients waiting in pain for record lengths of time in A&E after they have waited too long for ambulances to reach them. (The Guardian, June 2022)
Sajid Javid blamed the Pandemic. Clearly, it has had an enormous impact, but the delays are multifactorial. And (according to the same article) - the public aren't buying his explanation.
If you are old and ill, there is every reason to be afraid. And even if you are not old, or ill.
"We need to listen to the messages, we need to learn, but in the end we've got to get on and deliver for the British people, and that's what we're doing." Said Boris Johnson after his battering in the recent by-elections.
According to The Sun "Mr Johnson, who looked knackered, failed to answer a question on whether he'd mulled his resignation today, but told another reporter: "No doubt people will continue to beat me up and say this or that to attack me."
Yup, it's all about him "getting on with the job". The nation is in a parlous state - NHS waiting times, ambulance delays (apart from the cost of living crisis) - are they part of the "job" he's going to be "getting on with"?
He didn't create the crisis, he inherited it - and the Pandemic - but he's done little to nothing to ameliorate it. And I don't believe he will.