Eleven hours waiting for an ambulance, the ordeal of a Briton in the midst of a crisis in the health system

In July, Jackie Hulbert, 78, fell at home, but had to wait eleven hours on the ground for the arrival of an ambulance. By his side in this “unworthy” moment, his son Mathew is today warning about the extent of the crisis in the British health system.

• Read also: Rishi Sunak defends Brexit, “huge opportunity” for the United Kingdom

• Read also: Rishi Sunak dismisses one of his ministers because of his tax problems

Jackie died two days later in hospital from sepsis, and while no direct link is made to the long hours spent ashore, Mathew has been testifying to the National Health Service ever since. , public and free, the NHS.

When AFP meets Mathew Hulbert, in Barwell, a small town 160 kilometers north of London where he works in a local association, this jovial 42-year-old man has already told his story many times, but his face darkens. immediately to the memory of the ordeal experienced by his mother.

Early in the morning of July 10, he was awakened at 4:30 a.m. by a municipal agent. Her mother, who fell during the night, activated the emergency alarm installed at her home.

A friend drove him home, from where they called an ambulance at 5:01 a.m. “A carer finally arrived at 4:00 p.m., 11 hours later. She herself called an ambulance which arrived half an hour later. My mum was taken to hospital where they found she had an infection which turned into sepsis and she died two days later,” Mathew breathes.

During this interminable wait, he stays with his mother who cannot be moved, because she suffers from the ribs, her son fearing to aggravate his wounds.

He gives her food and drink and constantly calls 999, the emergency number, to find out when an ambulance can come.

“It was totally unworthy” and “I felt very isolated because you want to help your parents, you don’t want to see them suffer (…) and there was not much I could do”, he says.

Not being in a life-threatening emergency, her mother is not considered a priority for the emergency services, which are already overwhelmed.

Such stories regularly hit the headlines in the UK, symptoms of the deep crisis affecting the NHS, on the verge of rupture due to the austerity cure started in 2010 and the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.

Last December, patients classified in category 2, which includes heart attacks, waited an average of 90 minutes for an ambulance.

Due to a lack of support capacity when they leave the hospital, many patients stay there longer than necessary, blocking beds for new patients.

In England, nearly one in five ambulances takes more than 30 minutes to the hospital door to drop off a patient.

That’s what happened to Jackie, according to explanations given to Mathew by the East Midlands Regional Ambulance Service.

Even today, “we continue to experience a sustained level of calls relating to serious or vital emergencies”, which involve “prioritizing” interventions, explained to AFP Charlotte Walker, its operations manager in the Leicestershire.

“Not acceptable”

“Since what happened to my mother, I see it every day on social media,” says Mathew. “Right now, people are in desperate situations waiting for hours for an ambulance…and that’s just not acceptable.”

Nurses and paramedics walked off several times to protest against these dysfunctions and demand better salaries. They will do it again on February 6.

Presenting a plan to relieve emergencies, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has made this file a priority, announced that the NHS would buy 800 additional ambulances and open 5,000 new hospital beds.

Mathew, who does not want to allow himself to think that his mother might still be alive if she had been taken care of more quickly, calls on the political class to take the problem head on.

“We need cross-partisan discussions to resolve the issue,” he said. “It’s about the lives of real people. People are suffering, families are being destroyed with what is happening,” he pleads again.

---

Source

---