In this day and age, with the media talking about a crisis in the NHS around funding and strike actions, the stress of calling for an ambulance in an emergency has become even higher than ever.
Current statistics show that an overwhelmed NHS hospital is not able to meet the target set for it to respond to ambulance admissions. A recent analysis has found that by late November, more than 11,000 ambulances were spending over an hour in queues outside of the hospital every week in the UK. This far exceeds the NHS target, which states that ambulance crews are meant to be able to hand over their patients to hospital staff within 15 minutes of arrival.
The latest statistics – the highest since records began in 2010 – come at a crippling time, with the coldest winter days arriving and a time of year when increased pressure is put on the NHS. The figures mean that one in seven of all patients in an ambulance are not being seen to within over an hour after arriving at hospital.
A duty of care is necessary to treat injured, ill, and elderly patients requiring emergency services, but when, unfortunately, that is not met, you may be able to claim compensation for ambulance delays.
How can I claim compensation for ambulance delays?
You may be eligible to claim compensation if you or a family member have experienced a delay in:
- arrival at hospital
- transfer to a different more appropriate hospital for the condition requiring treatment
- handover of the patient by the ambulance to the hospital
- providing treatment
- A&E accepting a patient during handover from an ambulance
When can you claim compensation for ambulance delays?
If a delay to care significantly worsens your condition or leads to unnecessary complications, then you can claim for compensation.
In cases where a delayed response or extreme wait to be admitted to A&E occurs, you will be able to claim compensation if the delay is found to have led to severe or permanent damage that could have been avoided.
Scott Rees and Co can help you get the compensation you deserve so that you are able to recover from the damage caused by delays to care. We promise to do everything to make the process as stress free as possible and we will assign you a personal claim handler who will guide you through your claim.
What kinds of injuries can you claim ambulance delay compensation for?
There are many complications that can occur from delays in receiving care. Scott Rees and Co have helped patients and their families recover from many types of conditions that were caused by delays to care, including but not limited to the following:
- long-term disability
- amputation
- PTSD or psychological injury
- damage to vital organs
- spinal injury
- brain injury due to delayed response to a condition like stroke, heart attack, or respiratory arrest
- on some occasions, sadly, even an avoidable death
How can Scott Rees and Co help with an ambulance delay claim?
We sincerely hope that the NHS receives the support it needs in these exceptional and worrying times so that the service is able to reach its targets to ensure patients can receive the care they require. However, patients should also hold the NHS to account when a service is delivered that is so bad as to cause harm to the very people t is meant to help. You deserve the right to be compensated for medical negligence and our team are on hand to support anyone, or any families seeking justice for negligent care.
By bringing your claim to us we promise to do everything we can to get you the compensation that you deserve. We offer a no win, no fee service and have expert medical negligence solicitors on hand to support you in your claim.