Perhaps the most upsetting thing about the Bingham family waiting 15 hours for the arrival of an ambulance before deciding to drive their father to hospital is that it will not be an isolated incident.
After a call placed at 5.30pm on advice of the family GP, an expected arrival of an ambulance two hours later failed to materialise.
At 9pm, another call was made and the family told “we’re very, very busy” and to expect an ambulance by 2am. At 9am the next morning, William Bingham’s daughter, Michelle, drove her father to hospital.
“We had to get security to open the gate and nurses to help him out of the car,” said Michelle, angered and let down by the sorry state of the health service.
There is little doubt that the ambulance service is under increasing pressure.
It is simply spread too thin to be as effective as it should be.
Police, who may not be trained to the level of a paramedic, are often tasked with standing in, and have their own jobs that they should be doing.
Waiting for an ambulance for a loved one is an extremely stressful experience.
But waiting for 15 hours is well beyond the target set by the health system and should send sirens ringing if they hadn’t been already.
While the Bingham family may have received an apology for the length of time they had to wait for an ambulance that never arrived, that only goes so far.
According to the latest emergency care statistical bulletin, the Ambulance Service did not meet its category 1 target response times, for the most serious calls, “in any month during 2023/24”.
If they can’t get out quickly enough to the most serious calls, what chance for those further down the queue?
The statistics should be no slight on those who work in the ambulance service — dedicated professional who regularly intervene to save lives.
But in 2024, there are more lives needing saved, and not enough people to do it. It’s little wonder so many become angry at the way the health system is organised and how money is spent.
Trying not to fall ill during a busy time is not an answer and such a vital service operating without a safety net is no way to ensure the safety of the people who, largely, fund it by paying their taxes.
“It is not the service that we want to provide,” the Ambulance Service said.
“We will always try to respond to every call as quickly as possible and we will continue to prioritise those calls which are immediately life-threatening.”
They may try, but until they have the tools for the job, trying falls well short of expectation.