More than 46,000 seriously ill Londoners waited over an hour for an ambulance last year, new data reveals

The London Ambulance Service is the busiest in the country
PA

More than 46,000 seriously ill Londoners had to wait over an hour for an ambulance after calling 999 last year, new data has revealed.

A freedom of information request submitted to the London Ambulance Service found 46,536 “category two emergency” calls, which have an 18-minute response target as the patient is in a “potentially serious condition” that may require “rapid assessment”, took more than 60 minutes to attend.

On average, 127 callers in category two waited over an hour for an ambulance every day last year, according to analysis of the FOI data.

The number of these seriously ill people facing more than an hour wait was shown to have more than doubled on numbers reported in 2018, up to 21,992.

The data also revealed 11,482 people waited over two hours for an ambulance last year, despite being assessed as a "category two", up from 2,787 in 2018-19.

The LAS has been praised in recent months for its response to the coronavirus crisis
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Response times to the most life-threatening “category one emergencies” also worsened significantly.

"Category one" 999 calls have a target response time of seven minutes. But 68 of these callers waited more than an hour for an ambulance to arrive, up from 35 in 2018-19.

The LAS is Britain’s busiest ambulance service. It was put into special measures two years ago, and the new data comes after a warning issued by NHS watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, in January that the service had not been answering 999 calls quickly enough.

At the height of the first Covid-19 wave the LAS average response time to the most life-threatening calls rose to almost 10 minutes, while calls that should have an 18-minute response were shown to be taking more than an hour on average.

But an LAS spokesman said the service is now beating both its seven-minute and 18-minute response targets. It follows a big increase in ambulances as part of the pandemic response, firefighters seconded as drivers, a new 999 call centre to increase capacity, and a drop in call numbers.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has reacted to the figures by calling on the Government to increase LAS funding ahead of a potential Covid-19 second wave this winter.

The service has said it is now beating both its seven-minute and 18-minute response targets
PA

The service's chief executive Garrett Emmerson has previously told the Standard he believes the service is now better prepared to handle any second peak.

An LAS spokesman said: “We are the busiest ambulance trust in the country handling around two million emergency calls a year and attending more than 3,000 emergencies a day.

“Every patient is important, which is why we have processes to identify patients who cannot safely wait for an ambulance and prioritise them - for example sending a medic in a car to provide care before an ambulance arrives.”

The 46,536 category two calls waiting over an hour for an ambulance represent six per cent of the total calls to LAS in 2019-20.

In response to questions about preparations for winter, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “As the Prime Minister said when he announced an extra £3 billion for the NHS last month, we are absolutely committed to supporting the NHS.”

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