999 delays forcing sufferers to pay for personal ambulances – with bosses of Uber-style app to hail emergency providers cashing in on shameful state of the NHS
The first Uber-style app for emergency ambulances in the UK is booming as bosses cash in on the shameful state of the NHS.
Patients worried about delays for a 999 response are turning to private emergency care – with a guarantee help will arrive within half an hour.
NHS ambulances responded to category two calls, which includes heart attacks and strokes, in an average of 47 minutes and 26 seconds in December, the latest figures show.
One in ten patients in such need – equivalent to 42,200 a month – waited more than one hour and 41 minutes.
Patients who suffered falls typically waited more than three hours. App-provider FlashAid said business is booming due to poor NHS performance, with investors lining up to expand its service. Its ambulances are crewed by qualified paramedics, who can give care at the scene or take patients to an NHS or private hospital of their choice, if required.
The paramedics can administer drugs and even use sirens and blue lights when responding to calls.
FlashAid launched a pilot service in west London and the Thames Valley in December and plans to roll out nationwide within weeks.
It has deals with private ambulance firms which provide services to concerts and sporting events or pre-booked patient transport.
NHS ambulances responded to category two calls, which includes heart attacks and strokes, in an average of 47 minutes and 26 seconds in December, the latest figures show. Pictured: File photo
App-provider FlashAid said business is booming due to poor NHS performance, with investors lining up to expand its service
The nearest available ambulance responds when patients make a request in the app or call a hotline.
Exclusive polling for the Mail in December revealed just 33 per cent of the public are confident an NHS ambulance would arrive ‘quickly’ if they needed one.
FlashAid charges a fixed fee of £295 for home assessment and treatment by their qualified staff.
If transportation to a hospital is needed, it costs £99 per hour, billed separately at the end of the ride. Subscribers get a discount.
Fees are also expected to fall as it expands its service.
Ambulances can wait outside A&E to hand over patients to hospital staff or discharge patients to walk in, helping to reduce the cost.
Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, which campaigns for the elderly, described the need for private emergency care as ‘shocking’.
He said it was cruel that elderly people who have fallen or had a stroke will feel they have ‘no choice but to call for private care and pay hundreds of pounds’ rather than wait for an NHS ambulance.
Exclusive polling for the Mail in December revealed just 33 per cent of the public are confident an NHS ambulance would arrive ‘quickly’ if they needed one. Pictured: File photo
Dennis Reed (pictured), director of Silver Voices, which campaigns for the elderly, described the need for private emergency care as ‘shocking’
FlashAid says its crews treat 70 per cent of patients at the scene, take 15 per cent to private hospitals and 15 per cent to NHS ones. Co-founder Maxim Korotich told the Mail the demand for his service ‘speaks for itself’, adding that FlashAid typically gets to patients ‘much faster than the NHS’.
FlashAid is also planning to launch a request-a-nurse service, which will operate in a similar way.
An NHS England spokesman said ambulances had experienced their ‘busiest year’ in history but paramedics delivered faster response times than the year before.
A Department of Health spokesman said it was ‘unacceptable’ that ambulances are not meeting ‘response time standards’.
