Slow Ambulance Service

By Brandon

Injured and critically ill patients in rural areas are at risk of a slow ambulance service to reach them, an investigation was launched and it was found that people who live in rural areas are more likely to wait up to 20 minutes for one ambulance to arrive at their home but the ambulance rule is that the ambulance should arrive in 6-8 minutes.

This rule is very important in case someone is going into cardiac arrest.

The British heart foundation says “Every second counts” so put that in perspective a slow service is a matter of life and death. What are the consequences of this?

The time it takes for an ambulance to get to someone in Broxtowe is 7m and 41s, however the time in south Derbyshire is 9m and 12s so there is a big difference in the ambulance service when you go to different places.

BBC News has been given the average response times for the most life threatening send outs and they are mainly for cardiac arrest, stab wounds, strokes and major blood loss.

Across all rural communities in Britain, the average response time was 11m 13s – more than 50% longer than in urban areas where it took 7m 14s. This differs for N. Ireland, Scotland and Wales as they are more rural.