Ambulance service chief warns it could collapse within months

The boss of West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) has warned it could collapse within months as pressures continue to cause avoidable deaths.

 

Mark Docherty, nursing director of the service said they were dealing with a “catastrophic situation” including delayed response times and long hospital handovers, adding that patients were dying needlessly every day, and predicted the service would fail by August.

 

A spokesperson for WMAS said “The whole of the NHS remains under severe pressure and unfortunately handover delays mean some patients are waiting longer for an ambulance than we would want”.

 

Mr Docherty voiced his concerns during an interview with the Health Service Journal, where he expressed fears the service would face a “Titanic moment” and called for the Care Quality Commission and NHS England to do more to control the situation.

 

Mr Docherty went on to say that an increasing number of patients were waiting in the backs of ambulances for 24 hours before being admitted to hospital and that serious incidents had quadrupled in the last 12 months, largely due to severe handover delays.

 

He also said that NHS England officials had downplayed tackling the problem of delayed discharge and questioned why the CQC had issued improvement notices surrounding hospital corridor care, but not handover delays.

 

A spokesperson from the NHS said they have been “working hard to reduce ambulance delays”.

 

Victoria Vallance, director of secondary and specialist healthcare at the CQC, said the impact of “escalating pressure on the NHS is severe” with “unacceptably long delays for patients”.

 

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in medical negligence claims, providing support and guidance after life-changing events.  Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

 

If you believe that you or a relative may have been injured as a result of clinical/medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our medical negligence solicitors on the freephone number below.

 

Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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