Patients who need an ambulance from their GP surgery wait three times as long as other members of the public, with response times at TWO HOURS and 38 minutes
- Doctors claim calls are ‘downgraded’ if there is a medical professional nearby
- A doctor said they waited ‘several hours’ with a baby with a heart condition
- Patient with sepsis had to wait three hours after their GP called for an ambulance
Patients needing an ambulance from a GP surgery wait up to three times as long as other members of the public, an investigation has found.
Family doctors claim 999 calls are ‘downgraded’ if there is a medical professional on the scene. One patient with sepsis had to wait three hours after their GP called for an ambulance from the surgery.
Another doctor said they waited ‘several hours’ with a baby with a critical heart condition who only just survived.
In the East Midlands, the average response time for GP calls last year was two hours 38 minutes, three times longer than the 48 minutes for other calls.
Patients needing an ambulance from a GP surgery wait up to three times as long as other members of the public, an investigation has found
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The South Central Ambulance Service said the average wait was one hour and 14 minutes for patients with a GP but just 32 minutes for everyone else.
The findings by Pulse magazine under Freedom of Information rules will raise fears of a two-tier system by ambulance trusts dealing with a rising volume of calls.
Data came from ten of the UK’s 13 ambulance trusts covering October 2017 to September 2018.
The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives said it ‘categorically refutes’ that calls from GPs are downgraded.
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