by Iona McKnight
Some rural areas of the UK are slightly more at risk when it comes to waiting on an ambulance because it is taking longer for ambulances to get there. Some people in the rural areas wait around twenty minutes for an ambulance to arrive, which can cause issues especially when the situation could be life threatening. People in charge have said that they understand the wait is too long, however the staff are working very hard given the circumstances. The amount of demand is also a factor.
The most important cases include: a person going into cardiac arrest, stabbings, a lot of blood loss, seizures, people having trouble breathing, or women in later stages of labour. All of which are very urgent and every minute counts, in more urban areas, the average time it takes is about seven minutes whereas in more rural areas, the average time is about eleven minutes. This shows how the location affects the arrival time of the ambulance. Cardiac arrests are the most at risk from the delayed responses as the people helping someone who is going in to cardiac arrest have to give the person CPR in order to treat them as well as an electric shock. Two thirds of people who are treated survive this, however, every minute that they are not being treated reduces the person’s chance of survival by ten percent. Therefore critical situations are prioritized over more trivial ones.
The national target time is eight minutes. In some cases, ambulances took 18 minutes to reach their destination. If you would like to learn more about this story you can click on the link below.
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