English NHS ambulance services are spending twice as much on private ambulances than they were in 2012, according to Labour, while response-times have lengthened and ambulance staff appear increasingly disgruntled.[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_28_August_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Julia Manning joins Mary Wakefield and Fraser Nelson to discuss the 999 crisis.” startat=50]
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So there’s something else to blame on the Tory government, lest anyone feared a shortage. Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham lost no time in charging that ‘these figures show just how quickly the NHS is changing under David Cameron.’
Perhaps. Spectator subscribers, however, know the ambulance troubles are more complex than just miserly Tories and creeping NHS privatisation. Assuming, that is, they caught Mary Wakefield’s inside-look (literally) at the issue in our July 19 issue.
About seven minutes after I called 999, the first paramedic arrived on a motorbike. As he knelt down, T’s eyes opened. A short while later an ambulance arrived and a second paramedic ran through a series of checks.
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