Patients are being left with heart failure and thousands missing out on vital stroke treatment as ambulance and A&E delays “dismantle” live-saving NHS care, The Independent has been told.
Heart attack care is “going back in time” and driving avoidable deaths, several doctors have told The Independent, as new figures show just over one-half of patients needing care are receiving it in time – a ten per cent decrease compared to 2020-21.
Doctors have written to the secretary of state for health and social care Steve Barclay, and NHS medical director Stephen Powis this week, warning of “unnecessary deaths” due to these delays, The Independent has been told.
National stroke expert, Professor Martin James, said the latest NHS data up to September 2022 suggests 1,000 people a year are not getting vital stroke treatment, that might have before the pandemic. According to the National Audit of Stroke in 2021-22, just 40 per cent of patients received the care needed within four hours of the onset of their stroke.
The warnings come after The Independent revealed almost 6,000 patients are likely to have suffered “severe”, long last or permanent, harm due to ambulances being delayed outside of the hospital.
Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation and consultant cardiologist said the scale of worsening and “extreme” delays is meaning patient are not getting help “before the damage is already done.”
“Tackling the cardiovascular crisis is possible, but it needs decisive action now. This means growing the workforce of heart doctors and nurses and cardiac physiologists to match demand, while ensuring sufficient and fit for purpose specialist heart care facilities.”
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NHS England is due to be quizzed on Tuesday by MPs over the link between rising excess deaths and emergency care delays.
Worsening A&E delays, due to difficulties admitting patients, are driving record delays for ambulance crews to drop off patients, meaning there are less crews to respond to emergencies.
Dr Tom Johnson, a senior cardiologist in the South West told The Independent acute heart attack care within the UK has been significantly affected over the last six to 12 months.
He said: “Over 10 to 15years we have successfully created a strong network from pre-hospital through hospital care to cardiac rehabilitation, reliant upon the incredible ambulance service, and in the space of 6 to 12 months it has been effectively dismantled.”
“We have got patients presenting, later and sicker, at times beyond the point of curative treatment.
“Our failure to attend & transport patients with suspected heart attacks to hospital have resulted in critical emergencies remote from immediate medical care and at worst led to avoidable deaths.”
Dr Johnson said the government has a “huge responsibility” to support and acknowledge the issues face and that its focus on “greater productivity” is misguided.
“However, the public also have a responsibility to protect their NHS service through the appropriate use of emergency services, ensuring ambulance teams are available to attend the sickest patients as rapidly as possible,” he said.
New figures from a national audit of heart attack response times by The British Cardiovascular Intervention Society, shared at a closed conference on Friday, show a significant 10 per cent deterioration in patients receiving care within 90 minutes and 150 minutes, following a 999 call for a heart attack in 2021-22 compared to the previous year.
Speaking with The Independent, Professor Mamas Mamas, council member for the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society, said because of ambulance delays many more patients are not getting “clot-busting” drugs rather than an open heart procedure, called primary PCI.
He said services were “going back in time” and being forced to use clot busting drugs, which services had moved on from 15 years ago, because patients are not arriving for PCI procedures.
He said patients not getting this procedure within time have a greater chance of developing heart failure.
The latest data on excess deaths published by The Office For National Statistics showed there were almost 10,000 additional people who died from heart failure in 2022. This is compared to just over 7,000 in 2021 and 6,358 in 2020.
The Department for Health and Social Care was approached for comment.
Kaynak: briturkish.com
