Waiting for an ambulance, unable to breathe, brings austerity home | Frances Ryan

It only takes a moment of being in need to make cuts frighteningly real. The tipping point must be coming

Anyone witnessing Jeremy Hunt defending the NHS to Donald Trump on Twitter this week likely found themselves in the unprecedented position of agreeing wholeheartedly with the health secretary. And yet this was ultimately a sideshow, a spat that must seem particularly hollow for say, a heart attack patient left in an ambulance waiting for a bed or the nurse now sent to 999 calls because there aren’t enough ambulance crews.

I called an ambulance myself last month. I’d developed flu complications suddenly after work and couldn’t breathe. In central London on a Friday night, I knew the service would be strained but, as the minutes went on, I worried whether they would get to me in time. I ended up calling 999 three times due to the wait; in the end, paramedics got to me after about 45 minutes (time blurs when you can’t breathe).

The public are already lining the streets in protest. Time is ticking.

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Continue reading... February 08, 2018 at 01:30PM