By Kiran Randhawa
The Evening Standard
LONDON — Medics are failing to respond to 999 calls within government-set time limits in two thirds of London, figures reveal today.
Ambulances and other emergency vehicles are taking too long to arrive at the scene of life-threatening cases. Seventy-five per cent of the most serious calls should be dealt with within eight minutes, according to official targets.
But the new figures show that London Ambulance Service is failing to do this in 20 of 31 areas in the capital.
The targets, which have been credited with saving the lives of almost 20,000 heart attack victims since they were introduced in 2001, are in danger of being scrapped under government plans which will see the biggest overhaul of the NHS since its inception.
GMB union regional officer Dave Powell said the figures may be due to LAS using A&E support staff to attend emergency calls rather than paramedics.
He said: “LAS is using these support staff to go in ambulances more and more often. Sometimes they are getting to the most serious calls, which they are not trained to deal with, and then they are calling out paramedics.
“That means two crews are dealing with one case, taking that vital crew away from dealing with other potentially life-threatening cases.” The figures are based on response times to “category A” calls — the most urgent cases — in September. In August, LAS only failed to meet the eight minute target in seven boroughs.
The decline in standards coincides with a scheme under which lone paramedics are sent without an ambulance to the “vast majority” of 999 calls. An ambulance will only be called if the paramedic deems it necessary.
The pilot, which started in September, is designed to ease pressure on A&E departments and will see more patients treated at the scene of accidents or at home. The figures are contained in a report that shows LAS response times from April to September. In September, it only responded to 74 per cent of category A calls within eight minutes.
LAS operations director Richard Webber said the missed target was due to a seven per cent rise in demand on the 999 system compared with the month before. The target had been met for the financial year so far, he added.
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