Thousands of people risk serious stroke harm with driving mistake

 Well then, prove that you've fixed the problem of ambulance wait times. The problem IS NOT people getting themselves there by driving. YOU'RE BLAMING THE WRONG POPULATION YOU BLITHERING IDIOTS!

Thousands of people risk serious stroke harm with driving mistake

A rising number of stroke victims are putting themselves at risk by taking themselves to A&E instead of waiting for an ambulance amid concerns about long waits for an ambulance, a charity has warned. Stroke patients who seek help via 999 have a better chance of getting specialist help, the Stroke Association said.

The charity acknowledged people’s concerns about ambulance wait times, but this is still the “fastest and most efficient way to get the best treatment and care for stroke”. A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off and it is classed as a medical emergency.

Certain treatments can reduce the risk of death and long-term disability if they are delivered in a timely way. But new analysis from the Stroke Association shows that a stroke patient makes their own way to A&E, instead of arriving by ambulance, every 22 minutes across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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Overall 26.8% of stroke patients – some 23,491 people – reported making their own arrangements to get to the hospital in 2024/25, according to the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme.

It is the highest number since the stroke audit began more than a decade ago. The figure has been steadily rising over the last few years, standing at just 19.4% in 2020/21. The Stroke Association is encouraging people to call 999 rather than making their own way to A&E, saying this is the fastest way to get specialist stroke treatments.

Paramedics know which units are the best for emergency stroke care – which are not available at all hospitals, it added. Ensuring patients get to these specialist hubs means they are more likely to get timely access to stroke treatments including a procedure to remove the blood clot causing the stroke, known as a thrombectomy, or fast-track brain scans – which can be requested before an ambulance even arrives at the hospital.

They can also be admitted straight to an acute stroke unit which has been shown to improve a patient’s survival odds and leads to better recovery among stroke victims. The charity highlighted how timely treatment is essential to increase the chances of a patient surviving a stroke and to minimise brain damage which can leave stroke survivors unable to move, see, speak or swallow.

Professor Deb Lowe, medical director of the Stroke Association, said: “Stroke is a medical emergency so anyone who is experiencing symptoms should call 999 and wait for an ambulance. We have long supported the NHS’s Fast campaign which highlights the most common symptoms of stroke – facial drooping, arm weakness, slurred speech – as that’s when it is time to call 999.

“Even with the undeniable pressures the NHS is experiencing, we stand firm on that advice as it is the best way to get rapid and evidence-based care.”

Stroke patients need faster ambulance response

 You're not focusing on the real problem! Lack of 100% recovery protocols regardless of the time presented to hospital. DON'T YOU PEOPLE HAVE TWO FUNCTIONING NEURONS TO RUB TOGETHER?

Stroke patients need faster ambulance response

The South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb) could respond faster to patients suffering a stroke, according to its chief executive.

Strokes are classified as a 'category 2 emergency' and paramedics should arrive in an average time of 30 minutes, which is an increase from the previous target of 18 minutes.

In figures released on Thursday by Secamb, its average response time in December was 32 minutes 12 seconds compared with a national average of 47 minutes. Across 2024 Secamb averaged 29 minutes.

The trust's chief executive Simon Weldon said he had personal experience of caring for someone who had a stroke and added: "From a personal point of view I want us to be better."

Speaking on BBC Radio Sussex on Thursday, Mr Weldon recognised that having a stroke is "life-threatening" and said he would like to see the trust get closer to the previous target of 18 minutes to reach a stroke patient.

A stroke happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off, killing brain cells, said charity Stroke Association.

"How do we make sure that the demand that doesn't need an ambulance gets their needs met without an ambulance so we can do better for those patients who do have a stroke?" added Mr Weldon.

"But from a personal point of view, having cared for somebody who had a stroke and watch that happen, I want to be better."

'Endangering lives'

Stroke Association has said increasing demand on health and social care services "has led to an overstretched, under-resourced system which is causing severe delays in response times and handovers at hospital".

A spokesperson added: "This is endangering lives and recovery."

Secamb has more than 4,000 staff working across 110 sites in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

Almost 90 per cent of its workforce is made up of operational staff caring for patients either face to face, or over the phone at emergency dispatch centres where they receive 999 calls.

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Ambulance delays mustn’t stop stroke patients from getting lifechanging treatments this winter, says the Stroke Association

 Ambulance delays are not the problem! Not having 100% recovery protocols is the problem which your fucking failures of stroke associations aren't even trying to solve. They need to be destroyed and run by survivors!

Ambulance delays mustn’t stop stroke patients from getting lifechanging treatments this winter, says the Stroke Association

Stroke patients need timely access to vital and lifechanging treatments despite the expected difficulties the winter months will bring for the NHS, calls the Stroke Association.

Today’s NHS England data¹shows that November’s average response time for category 2 ambulance calls, which includes stroke, was 42 minutes and 26 seconds - the longest so far this year. In October, the average response time was 42 minutes and 15 seconds, up from 36 minutes and 2 seconds in September. This is against a national target of 30 minutes.²

NHS England data also shows that over the last five years (2018/19 – 2023/24), ambulance response times between November and February have been on average 17.1% longer than between May and August^.3

Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the UK. Speedy treatment of stroke is crucial as 1.9 million brain cells die every minute that a stroke is left untreated, increasing the risk of serious long-term disability and death. Its main treatments – thrombectomy and thrombolysis – are most effective within hours of the onset of stroke.

Although the stroke community has improved the use of thrombectomy treatment - from less than 1% in 2015/16 when such data was first collated - recent data from the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP)⁴ shows that 3.9% of stroke patients had a thrombectomy last year, against the NHS England’s target of 10% by 2027/28.

The Stroke Association is warning that the expected pressure the NHS will experience in the winter months could prevent even more people from getting this treatment which can make the difference between a stroke survivor leaving hospital walking, in a wheelchair due to mobility issues or even saving their life.

This week, NHS leaders and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting have been discussing the importance of prioritising patient safety by getting patients out of ambulances and into hospital beds quickly and efficiently as the NHS faces record pressure on its services already this season. This also follows findings from Lord Darzi’s recent report⁵on how long delays for vital NHS services are contributing to unnecessary deaths.

The Stroke Association continues to urge the public to view stroke as a medical emergency and call 999 if they experience any one stroke symptom, rather than go to A&E themselves. These are facial drooping, arm weakness and speech difficulties – as outlined in the FAST test. To support this, the charity is calling for:

• The Secretary of State Wes Streeting to put in place a winter plan and emergency funding to support our ambulance, urgent and emergency care services over the coming months.
• The Government and the NHS continue to highlight thrombectomy as a key priority that regional NHS boards should prioritise in their 2025/26 planning.
• The Government’s 10 Year Health Plan to put in place a clear, actionable road map for transforming stroke care so that every stroke patient gets the high quality, timely care and treatment they need as soon as they call 999.
• The Government and NHS leaders to recruit and retain staff across stroke care including in ambulance services, diagnostics, specialist stroke services to widen access to stroke units and stroke treatments to support their recovery.

Juliet Bouverie OBE, Chief Executive at the Stroke Association, said: “Far too many stroke patients are left with no option but to sit and watch the time tick by as they wait for life-saving treatment. The Stroke Association supports thousands of stroke survivors who are often left unable to walk, talk or even see, which could have been avoided if the right treatments were available at the right time.

“We recognise that ambulance services and the whole NHS workforce are under intense pressure during the winter months, and we welcome their hard work and dedication. Despite their best efforts, long waits have sadly become a hallmark of emergency care. The Government must urgently get a grip on this crisis now with additional funding for stroke care to speed up time from suspected stroke to treatment. This also needs to be a fundamental part of the 10 Year Health Plan, to make the NHS fit for the future and help the stroke patients who have waited long enough already.”

Baz Singh, 52, from Solihull had a stroke last November. The father of five knew he was having a stroke, as did his nineteen-year-old son, by recognising the signs from the FAST test. When Baz’s son called 999 and relayed his dad’s symptoms, the call handler said it would take five to six hours for an ambulance to arrive.

The family decided to make their own way to A&E at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham where Baz’s stroke was confirmed. However, he was told there was a 26 hour wait for the stroke unit. As a result, Baz was unable to receive timely specialist care. He now lives with significant disabilities including reduced mobility, poor mental health and problems with his vision resulting in a poor quality of life.

Baz said: “I am angry and feel let down by the system. I am sure if I’d received stroke treatment more quickly, my quality of life would be so much better. I hate relying on my kids to help with my personal care and even simple things like tying my shoelaces. It really feels so unfair not just for me, but for them. I don’t want anyone who has had a stroke to live with the disabilities that I do.”

Ambulance response times vary wildly as new data exposes hour-long wait for stroke patients - Southwest England

You're focusing on the wrong problem. The real problem is that no matter when you get to hospital, the staff has NO PROTOCOLS TO GET YOU 100% RECOVERED. Focusing on ambulance time is just the latest whack-a-mole. Solving that still won't get you 100% recovered. 

Ambulance response times vary wildly as new data exposes hour-long wait for stroke patients

Delays are causing causing ‘life-threatening harm’ and ‘deaths’ as emergency services in Sourth West face heaviest pressure

Patients are being put at risk and some are dying due to handover delays between ambulances and A&E departments, safety investigators say (Photo: Liam McBurney/PA)

By Tom Saunders

June 18, 2022 6:00 am(Updated 6:05 am)

Stroke patients who live in the South West of England face an average wait for an ambulance of nearly an hour, new figures show.

The 56-minute wait for patients, who by definition need urgent treatment, is more than three times the 18-minute national target for such “category 2” ambulance calls covering strokes and chest pains.

It is also more than double the average 27-minute ambulance wait time for category 2 patients in the South East. And even there the new data shows that for one in 10 such cases there is a wait of at least 56 minutes.

Jacqui Cuthbert, the Stroke Association’s associate director for the South West, said: “We remain deeply concerned at the continuing delays in ambulance response times.

“Stroke is a medical emergency and getting the best treatment quickly is vital to survival and recovery.

“Every minute a stroke is left untreated, 1.9 million brain cells can die. The later treatment happens, the harder recovery can be for survivors and the more likely it is that they will be left with severe effects of stroke, including increased disability.”

The figures published this week by NHS England document both the continuing severity of the ambulance crisis and its uneven spread across the country.

Jessica Morris, a fellow at the Nuffield Trust, told i: “It’s a whole system problem at the moment with backlogs and waiting times.

“One of the reasons for this is what’s happening in emergency departments. There are increased waits outside accident and emergency (A&E) departments, handover delays have gone up, and within emergency departments, waiting times have got much worse.”

The figures come after a study by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), published on Thursday, linked the long waits for ambulances to delays in them being able to hand over the patients to hospital A&E departments.

The report said the delays were causing “life-threatening harm”, and cited an example of a patient found unconscious at home, who was taken to hospital by ambulance but then held in the vehicle for three hours and 20 minutes, before eventually being admitted to intensive care.

Some people are already dying because of the delays, HSIB National Investigator Neil Alexander warned.

“It is one of the most urgent issues facing healthcare and sadly has resulted in deaths of patients who couldn’t access the treatment they needed in time,” he said.

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The handover delays vary considerably by region. Again the largely rural South West appeared to have a particular problem. According to latest available data – for 27 March 27 to 3 April – half of patient transfers in five hospitals in England were delayed more than an hour.

Three of those five hospitals were in the South West, including Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundatoin Trust, which saw 57 per cent of handovers delayed over an hour, the highest of any trust.

University Hospitals Bristol, and Torbay and South Devon, were the other two hospital trusts in the region with the highest handover times.

Nationally, Shrewsbury and Telford, and North Lincolnshire and Goole, also had more than half of handovers delayed by more than an hour.

This week’s NHS data shows that the South West had the longest average ambulance wait times for category 1 calls covering life-threatening emergencies, such as heart attacks. Ambulances in London were on average 50 per cent faster to these calls than ambulances in the South West.

While rural areas like the South West tended to struggle more with the most urgent category 1 and 2 calls, they were far better at responding to less serious calls.

London was the slowest to respond to category 4 calls, taking an average of three hours and 25 minutes compared to one hour 53 minutes for the North East, which was the fasted response time.

On average across England, while ambulance delays have fallen from the previous month, they are still considerably higher than official targets.

The NHS has pledged that ambulances will respond to 90 per cent of all category 2 calls within 40 minutes, but the true figure currently stands at more than double that, with ambulances responding to 90 per cent of calls within 85 minutes.

For category 3 incidents – less serious but still urgent calls – the Government aims to respond to 90 per cent within two hours, but is currently only managing to respond to that proportion within five hours and 22 minutes.

Only in the most serious emergencies – category 1 calls – have numbers fallen to close to the target, where average response times are only 15 seconds higher than the goal of meeting 90 per cent of calls within 15 minutes.

There are various reasons for the recent rise in delays, including a historical shortage of paramedics and a slight uptick in 999 calls. But experts believe that one of the main contributors to the surge is the lack of bed space in hospitals.

The hospital handover delays are themselves a symptom of wider pressures on the healthcare system, as the NHS faces staffing pressures while simultaneously trying to slash backlogs caused by the pandemic.

Danielle Jefferies, a policy analyst at health think tank the King’s Fund, told i: “Right now it is a very big issue. It shows that the emergency service and the healthcare system are struggling across the board. Those long waiting times are a symptom of the whole healthcare system under pressure.”

Trusts have been asked to deliver 104 per cent of pre-pandemic elective surgery activity throughout 2022, but a recent survey of NHS trust leaders showed that just 37 per cent were confident they would achieve that target, and 88 per cent pinpointed difficulties in discharging patients as one of the main reasons for this.

Staff shortages in social care have also contributed to patient blockages at hospitals. According to its interim report, national organisations told the HISB that the social care sector has had particular challenges with staff recruitment and retention, in turn making it difficult to safely discharge patients into the sector.

The increased pressure on ambulance staff may also cause more damage to the healthcare system in the long term.

Ms Jefferies said: “It’s probably having a huge effect on the morale and the well-being of the staff. I’m sure most paramedics don’t want to be stuck outside in the car park for a few hours waiting to hand over their patients.”

An analysis by the GMB union has shown that ambulance callouts have increased by 77 per cent in the last 11 years but the number of ambulance workers increased by just seven per cent.

Rachel Harrison, GMB National Officer, said: “Ambulance workers have faced more than a decade of cuts while demand has almost doubled. It’s no wonder they are leaving in droves while the service itself is teetering on the brink of collapse.”

A spokesperson for Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said “high pressure in our healthcare settings” was leading to ambulances “waiting longer to discharge patients than we would want”.

Dr Peter Reading, chief executive of North Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Staff in our emergency departments are working incredibly hard to see and treat people as quickly as possible,” adding: “This is a whole system issue, not just a hospital one, and one that is felt right across the country.”

Gloucestershire Hospitals, University Hospitals Bristol and Shrewsbury and Telford were also approached for comment.