Heart attack patients told to get lift to hospital receiving ‘unacceptable’ care, health minister admits

Move in north east comes after Boris Johnson admitted parts of NHS ‘temporarily overwhelmed’

Patients with suspected heart attacks who have been told to get a lift to hospital are receiving unacceptable care, a health minister has admitted.

Gillian Keegan has ordered an investigation into the action taken by North East ambulance service – because Omicron has hit its staff levels – even as the government ruled out further Covid restrictions.

“That doesn’t sound to me like that’s an acceptable approach,” the health minister said, as she claimed more ambulance crews are in operation than ever before.

“People should be able to get an ambulance if they have a heart attack and that’s why we’ve put that extra funding in place, and why we’ve been building up our ambulance service over the last couple of years.”

The head of the North East Ambulance Service has defended its move, arguing rising staff sickness left no alternative if it was to protect “the critically unwell”.

It comes as the government shifts it stance, after long insisting the NHS can cope through the winter, rejecting its pleas for tougher curbs to combat the Omicron threat.

On Wednesday, Boris Johnson admitted the health service is “under huge pressure” and – for the first time – that parts of it are struggling to stay above water.

“I won’t provide a definition of what being overwhelmed would constitute, because I think that different trusts and different places, at different moments, will feel at least temporarily overwhelmed,” he said.

Ministers have been accused of setting the bar for “overwhelmed” too high – the health secretary, Sajid Javid, once suggesting it would be children not receiving treatment after car crashes.

But NHS staff the current worrying situation – with long ambulance waiting times and cancelled operations and appointments – is evidence that they are already overwhelmed.

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman, said, of heart attack patients being refused an ambulance: “It’s shocking that it’s come to this.”

A note from North East Ambulance director, Mathew Beattie, leaked to the Health Service Journal, said call handlers are using taxis to get people to hospital.

It gives the example of a person with chest pain who should get an ambulance within 18 minutes, but may now have to wait two hours.

The note said staff should “consider asking the patient to be transported by friends or family”, the publication reported.

Dr Beattie told the Health Service Journal: “We need to weigh up the risk of delays for ambulances against alternative disposition or transport options. We have no option than to try to work differently.

“Patient safety is our top priority and the impact of increased activity and staff sickness, linked to Omicron. meant that we needed to act to protect our response to the critically unwell.”

The north east and Yorkshire have experienced the highest rate of growth in hospital admissions – up 122 per cent in one week.

There were 1,975 Covid patients in hospitals on Monday, compared with fewer than half that – 889 – the week before.