Ambulance Waiting Times

Last updated on October 19th, 2023 at 09:30 pm

Reading Time: 2 minutes

A change of subject today, but another topic very close to my heart.

Did you know that hospitals can be fined £200 for every patient that is kept waiting in an Ambulance at A&E for between 30 minutes and 1 hour?

It gets worse, if kept waiting for over an hour that fine can increase to £1,000.

Why are patients left waiting in an Ambulance once they have arrived at A&E? There is only one answer, government cuts.

I am not bashing the NHS, A&E or the Ambulance/Paramedic Service, I am laying the blame squarely at the door of Central Government, and it has been going on for several years.

Government cuts have led to fewer doctors, fewer nurses, bed-blocking (Local Authorities cannot accept patients being discharged from hospital to a Care Home etc due to their budgets being cut by government and this has a knock-on effect).

Hospitals are struggling financially because of the government cuts, and their situation is being made many times worse by being fined for failing to perform at the required level because of government cuts. The hospitals have less money, then they get fined and ‘robbed’ of some of the little money they did have.

In 2013, collectively, hospitals were fined £44 Million for patients kept waiting in Ambulances. In 2017 one hospital alone was fined £300,000 over a nine month period. Just think what these monies could achieve if spent on patients, instead of being lost in arbitrary ‘fines’.

Doctors, Nurses, Ambulance Drivers, Paramedics, virtually ALL Healthcare Professionals, exist to provide a world class service to their patients. They are hampered in doing this by the government cuts and then have even more money taken away from them because they have failed to meet their targets.

Well done Mr Hunt, I hope that you can sleep at night.

#CutsHaveConsequences in the NHS also.

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