Ambulance crisis forcing police to take patients to hospital

Exclusive: Police warn transporting patients to hospital risks safety and takes officers away from crime

Emergency services are likely to be operating at the highest alert level until the end of July (EPA)

Police are transporting patients to hospitals as the ambulance service crisis worsens, officers have warned.

The National Police Chief’s Council has sent a warning about patient safety due to a lack of ambulances.

The caution comes as an NHS ambulance service began a pilot to use volunteers to take patients with less acute health needs to hospital, according to reports on Monday.

Last week the NHS revealed record delays across ambulance services in England as patients with potentially life-threatening conditions, such as suspected stroke or heart attack, were left waiting hours for an ambulance.

According to board papers published by Yorkshire Ambulance Service Trust, emergency services in England are likely to be operating at the highest alert level until the end of July.

In a statement to The Independent, the National Police Chiefs’ council lead for local policing, Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney said: “We are aware that officers are having to transport people to hospital due to a lack of ambulances, and this concerning.

“This is an important issue because of the safety of patients, but it is also important because it reduces the police’s ability to fight crime and protect people in all the wider ways we should. It can also put officers in situations where they are having to make decisions that they are not best placed to make, despite their best endeavours.”

She said police services can often be the service of “last resort” and will be willing to step in and assist someone who is needed.

“We are working at pace with our emergency service partners, local authorities and government to ensure this problem can be solved, but we should not be the service of first resort in these situations”

Delays in ambulance response times have been heavily linked to the delays paramedics experience in handing over patients in hospitals, with tens of thousands of crew hours being lost in February, according to the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE).

Martin Flaherty, managing director for the AACE told The Independent: “AACE does not have any data relating to how often the Police have conveyed patients to hospital in police vehicles. But with extended ambulance response times caused by ambulances queuing at hospitals due to the longest hospital handover delays on record, we are not surprised to hear accounts from the police that they are more frequently being left with little option other than to convey patients in police cars.”

“This is clearly not in the best interests of patients, it puts police officers in an incredibly difficult position and it absorbs valuable police resources. We call on NHS England and [NHS] Improvement and local health systems to rapidly resolve delays in hospitals accepting patients from the ambulance service in order to release ambulances to respond to emergency calls in the community.”