East of England Ambulance Service warns of emergency call delays

Marcus Bailey, chief operating officer of EEAS has urged 999 callers to not hang up as “there may be a delay before we pick up”.

 

Mr Bailey said the delays were due to a “combination” of Covid, recruitment and winter pressures, and said the service planned to recruit an additional 100 call-handlers over the next few months to help ease the pressure.

 

Mr Bailey said “It’s about us warning people who are phoning 999 that it’s really busy and at some points there may be a delay before we pick up the 999 call.  Remain on the line, don’t hang up, and we will get to you as soon as possible.”

 

He said the delays at hospitals were due to Covid-19, seasonal illness and the backlog of operations due to the pandemic, which “does at times cause difficulties for us to respond to patients.”

 

This comes following the news last month that a patient suffered a fatal heart attack in the back of an ambulance after it queued for longer than two hours outside a Norfolk hospital.

 

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 Karen Motley, 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.

 

Freephone : 0800 304 7382