Secret plan to DOUBLE ambulance waiting times: Stroke and seizure patients could wait up to 19 minutes under new targets approved by NHS bosses

• Ambulance crews are to be given more time to respond to incidents 
• Secret memo revealed targets may be increased from eight to 19 minutes
• 'Red 2' incidents, the second most serious, would be affected by change
• Senior NHS doctors warned the scheme could risk patients' lives
• Comes as the emergency services face widespread crisis this winter

The Mail on Sunday newspaper has found that:

• Two ambulance services, covering 12 million people, are at a ‘critical’ alert level – with NHS London Ambulance Service saying it will not send crews to those with broken arms or women in ‘routine labour’.
• At least a dozen hospitals across England are on ‘black alert’ – meaning they are totally full, leading to pre-planned operations being cancelled.
• Patients who might have cancer are being ‘bounced back’ from hospitals, told they are ‘not urgent’ cases and must wait up four months for vital tests
• New ‘super-strains’ of flu – against which the flu jab seems to provide little protection – are starting to sweep across the country.

As a result of the closed-door teleconferences, at which it was ‘explicitly stressed’ that discussions should remain secret, ambulance services will get more time to assess Red 2 calls.

They will get three minutes before the ‘clock starts’ on target times, rather than one minute as they do now. This change could be brought in during January.

Comment: Strange that the Ambulance Executives are proposing to extend ambulance response times when the results published on Friday show that it is ambulance queuing that is causing the problem because of Delayed Transfer ------BED BLOCKING!

For more information see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2882092/Secret-plan-double-...

BBC Political Correspondent writes: 

see Carole Walker's twitter feed

Jeremy Hunt tweets:

what was this then:

Does it come of politicians not understanding the jargon.

As the text at the bottom of the original on line article and print edition makes clear

As a result of the closed-door tele-conferences, at which it was ‘explicitly stressed’ that discussions should remain secret, ambulance services will get more time to assess Red 2 calls.

They will get three minutes before the ‘clock starts’ on target times, rather than one minute as they do now. This change could be brought in during January.

This proposal and others ‘received approval’ from Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt last Monday, the memo states.

It means from January ambulances will have a total of 11 minutes to reach a Red 2 patient before breaching the Government target, rather than nine.

The plan to change target times to 19 minutes has yet to be agreed.