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If she comes, you're lucky: driver of an ambulance for the state health service provider NHS
Photo: ANDY RAIN/EPA
A quarter of emergency calls in the UK went unanswered in October.
That is the highest level that has ever existed, as reported by the Guardian, citing official statistics.
The reason for this is the overload of the healthcare system: the ambulances have to wait a long time in front of the emergency rooms before they can drop off their patients there.
During this time they fell out for new assignments.
According to estimates, around 5,000 patients suffered "severe damage" in the past month due to long waiting times.
Either an emergency vehicle arrived with a long delay or they waited for hours in front of the emergency room until they were admitted to the specialist staff.
Paramedics warned people were dying every day from the overload.
The British rescue service can no longer fulfill its role as a "safety net" in the current situation.
Over 130,000 vacancies
The UK healthcare system has been in crisis for a long time.
132,139 positions were already vacant in the state health system at the end of June 2022: 9.7 percent of the planned workforce.
According to the quarterly number of employees, the number was significantly higher than three months earlier.
The Guardian reported on the gaps.
"Today's vacancy figures are staggering and further proof that the NHS simply does not have the staff to do everything that is asked of it," said Saffron Cordery, interim chief of NHS Providers, at the time healthcare providers in England.
Record high on the waiting lists
In England alone there is a shortage of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives, the House of Commons Health Committee found in July.
Waiting lists for hospital treatment rose to a record high of almost 6.5 million patients in April this year.
The goal of offering treatment within 18 weeks has not been met since 2016.
An overwhelming majority of medical professionals believe that the current workforce will not be able to reduce the backlog caused by the pandemic.
This now has an impact on the emergency service.
"The life-saving network provided by the NHS Ambulance Service is severely limited by these unnecessary waits and patients are dying or injured every day as a result," said Martin Flaherty, executive director of an association of regional ambulance services.
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