AMBULANCE WAITS AT ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

Early day motion 685, tabled 6 February 2003 by Liam Fox (Conservative). Signed by 37 members.

That this House notes with very great concern the mounting crisis in the ambulance service over delays to the admission of patients at accident and emergency departments in many parts of the UK; further notes that the problem is being caused by the drive to limit waiting times in accident and emergency departments to four hours, prompting hospital managers to delay taking over the case of a patient from ambulance staff to help them meet this target; further notes that in the most extreme cases ambulances have been stuck outside accident and emergency departments for longer than six hours, and that up to 11 ambulances have had to queue outside an accident and emergency department at any one time; further notes that some ambulance services have had as many as 50 per cent. of their ambulances stranded at accident and emergency departments at any one time, and as a results are warning that they may not always be able to respond to 999 calls; further notes that the Health Minister, the honourable Member for Tottenham, recently convened a meeting of ambulance service chief executives at which he instructed them not to talk publicly about the issue; and calls for an urgent debate in Government time on how this disgraceful situation is being tackled.

Signatures by party: Conservative 34, Independent Conservative 1, Liberal Democrat 1, Plaid Cymru 1.