Pateley Bridge demands action after hour-long waits for ambulances

Pateley Bridge Town Council is demanding action after reports of people waiting up to an hour for an ambulance to arrive.

Frustration is growing between Pateley Bridge locals as the number of incidents with slow response times increase.

The mayor of the town, Mike Holt, told the Stray Ferret there had been numerous cases of people having heart attacks or bad falls and having to wait for long periods for treatment despite there being an ambulance station in the town, as well as in nearby Ripon and Grassington.

Cllr Holt said it was an “ongoing issue” that wasn’t down to any one cause.

One local resident contacted the town council after she waited almost 30 minutes for an ambulance when her husband had a heart attack last month.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said:

“It was just a normal evening and then he turned, I rang 999 immediately and was told it would be a 40-minute wait. The handler also hung up after saying they were really busy and couldn’t stay on the line. It’s frustrating and very worrying.

“Luckily one was deployed from Grassington but still the time it takes can make a real difference.”

The resident and Cllr Holt acknowledged ambulance response times was a national issue due to pressure on the NHS but both insisted more needed to be done.

Cllr Holt said the town council would submit a Freedom of Information request to Yorkshire Ambulance Service to discover details about wait time in the area. Once it received a response it would review what action it would take.

He said:

“There are many cases where they do amazing work but this is an ongoing issue that needs looking at. We’ve regularly had complaints of people waiting up to an hour.”

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In the past week, Yorkshire Ambulance Service released a statement saying covid and the easing of lockdown restrictions meant calls for help were increasing and the demand on its services was similar to that experienced during winter flu season. It said:

“Overall demand for emergency ambulances is increasing year-on-year and this pressure is reflected in all NHS services across the whole country.

“We aim to reach all our patients as quickly as possible based on their clinical need, including rural areas of our region where sparsely dispersed populations present particular challenges for all emergency services.”