Capacity to handle 999 calls at risk, warns London ambulance service

Exclusive: campaigners say chronic staff shortage at service poses direct threat to patients

Britain’s busiest NHS ambulance service may no longer be able to answer all 999 calls quickly enough because its control rooms are chronically short of call handlers, it has warned.

The London ambulance service (LAS) has disclosed that its capacity to respond to medical emergencies is under threat because it has 20% less control room staff than it needs.

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

Between 2010-11 and 2016-17, health spending increased by an average of 1.2% above inflation and increases are set to continue in real terms at a similar rate until the end of this parliament. This is far below the annual inflation-proof growth rate that the NHS enjoyed prior to 2010 of almost 4% stretching back to the 1950s. As budgets tighten, NHS organisations have been struggling to live within their means. In the financial year 2015-16, acute trusts recorded a deficit of £2.6bn. This was reduced to £800m last year, though only after a £1.8bn bung from the Department of Health, which shows the deficit remained the same year on year.

Continue reading... March 02, 2018 at 04:30PM