Ambulance boss' winter pledge after man's three

Ambulance vow after man's three-hour wait on floor An ambulance boss has said he is confident services will be better this winter despite a woman telling of her husband lying on the floor for three hours waiting earlier this month.

Dan Ainsworth from North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), said the system could cope during the busy festive period because it had increased staffing and fleet numbers.

But, Linda Morris said her 87-year-old husband was forced to crawl back home after waiting three hours for an ambulance after a fall in Leigh.

She said: "He shouldn't have had to wait on the floor, it was an emergency and it was very cold."

In 2021 to 2022, the average response time for Category 2 incidents, emergency calls such as stroke patients, in the north-west of England reached more than 47 minutes - the NHS target is 18 minutes.

Last month, Ms Morris, 75, said her husband, George, was told on the phone there was a long wait and it could be hours before an ambulance turned up.

However, Mr Ainsworth is promising that vulnerable patients, like Mr Morris, will not have to wait that long again.

"We are in the strongest position I believe we have been as an organisation," he said.

"Do contact us, we will be there and we will respond".

More than 280 people have been recruited as frontline staff for the NWAS.

These include paramedics and emergency call handlers.

In Greater Manchester there are now 32 new emergency vehicles - bringing the NWAS total up to 553 ambulances.

Mr Ainsworth said the service was also working with hospitals to make sure ambulances were not waiting at A&E because they could not hand over patients, due to a lack of beds and social care provision.

He explained that dark nights, more calls and a rise in flu cases, were some of the reasons the NHS faced a busy winter period, so it was important anyone who went to hospital "absolutely needed to be there".

He said patients would be advised how to navigate other services, including NHS 11 and pharmacy care.

"We understand the healthcare system will work best when we work in partnership," he said.

"Last winter we did a huge amount of work improving our front line workforce and we have continued to build upon that to ensure all of those vehicles are available through winter," he added.