Dial 999 for an ambulance and a taxi turns up? Not what you would be expecting but the Labour Party claims that incidents like this are becoming more and more frequent.
One ambulance service in the south west has allegedly seen a 350% increase in taxis sent to emergency call-outs in the past three years.
Labour Claims
Labour shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, revealed a report obtained under a Freedom of Information request confirmed that the South Western Ambulance Service (SWAS) used taxis 158 times to attend 999 calls in 2012-2013 compared to just 35 used in 2009-2010.
SWAS is a single organisation covering more than 10,000 square miles in the South West. It expanded in 2013 following its takeover of the neighbouring Great Western Ambulance Service.
Mr Burnham said that he believed ambulances were arriving at overrun A&E departments and becoming “trapped” and unable to hand over patients.
Speaking at the House of Commons, he said: “Today I want to put to you new evidence that the A&E crisis is deepening and having a serious knock-on effect on ambulance services.
“One ambulance service has seen a 350 per cent increase in the number of 999 calls attended by taxis.
“Do you think it’s ever acceptable that when a patient dials 999 a taxi turns up instead?”
Disagreement
Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, challenged Mr Burnham’s claims announcing that they were fully aware of the crisis and it had been agreed that an extra £250 million would be spent in the most struggling A&E departments. The spend will cover the purchase of around 2,500 additional beds and the recruitment of almost 3,000 members of staff.
Mr Hunt also said that only 66 patients with minor injuries had been transported via taxis and that the service had been “misrepresented” by Labour.
In response to Mr Burnham’s accusations, Mr Hunt said: “I’m afraid this is utterly irresponsible. We are hitting our A&E target; we are hitting our ambulance standard. When you were health secretary you missed the ambulance standard for October, November, December and January.
“What you are doing is trying to talk up a crisis that isn’t happening and you should think about people on the front line and just for once put patients before politics.”
A spokeswoman said: “Taxis are only used to transport patients in a very small minority of cases where it is clinically safe and appropriate to do so. The 66 patients that have been transported in a taxi this year have had minor injuries or ailments such as a cut finger or a sprained wrist.
“Taxis are only used in extreme circumstances when demand on ambulance resources is exceptional and any patient offered a taxi will have been clinically assessed as safe to travel.”