Ambulances in London took more than an hour to reach heart attack, stroke and sepsis patients in March, on average, amid the capital’s coronavirus crisis.
The Category 2 patients, who are life-threateningly ill and lower priority only than someone whose heart or breathing has stopped, waited an average of one hour, one minute and 22 seconds after phoning 999 last month.
This was almost three times as high as any given month in the past year – the highest to date had been an average 26 minutes 42 seconds in December.
It comes as London faces the worst COVID-19 outbreak in Britain with around 13,400 officially diagnosed cases and 1,907 of the country’s 7,097 fatalities.
The city, home to around nine million people, is the first to start using a temporary overflow hospital – the NHS Nightingale – to help medics cope with the number of coronavirus patients.
Figures show ambulances are getting busier but paramedics also said they may be slowing down because they must now stop to put on protective clothing and clean the vehicles more thoroughly between patients.
It was not clear whether regional variations are directly linked to coronavirus hotspots, nor whether patients in certain conditions are more affected than others.
Separate data today also revealed A&E departments in NHS hospitals were in March the quietest they had been in a decade, with a 22 per cent drop in visits in a month.
Ambulances in London took more than an hour to reach heart attack, stroke and sepsis patients in March, on average, amid the capital’s coronavirus crisis
An ambulance is seen in Trafalgar Square in London
Statistics published today by NHS England revealed an almost three-fold rise in a month of the average ambulance response time for Category 2 patients.
Category 2 patients are people who need emergency help because they have a life-threatening illness, but are still breathing on their own and have a pulse.
This includes people who have had strokes, heart attacks, have major burns or are thought to have sepsis, which can kill in hours.
All ambulance trusts in the country are supposed to aim for an average 18-minute response time and to get to 90 per cent of category 2 calls within 40 minutes.
The average response time for the London Ambulance Trust rose from 22:02 in February to 1:01:22 in March.
For Category 1 patients, those whose heart or breathing has stopped, response times got slightly longer but remained low – in London the average response time rose from 6:48 to 9:52.
This came as the number of coronavirus patients in the UK spiralled uncontrollably from just 23 on the last day of February to 25,150 on the last day of March.
The surge piled unprecedented pressures on NHS hospitals, which have been forced to cancel all non-urgent operations and turf out any patients able to go home.
London Ambulance Service attended almost 8,000 more incidents in March – its number of jobs rose from 58,518 to 66,492.
Paramedics have become more busy, whether a direct result of the outbreak or not, but new infection control procedures may also be slowing them down.
A spokesman for the College of Paramedics, Richard Webber, told MailOnline: ‘Paramedics on the frontline are now having to don additional, personal protective equipment, they’re having to clean their vehicles more thoroughly and contend with staff shortages as between 20 and 30 per cent of staff are currently either off sick or self-isolating, all of which has impacted the response times.’
Mr Webber added ‘Paramedics and ambulance staff are working exceptionally hard at the moment and we are very grateful for all of the support staff are receiving across the UK. It’s really appreciated.
‘Above all, we would ask that people stay safe and stay at home. Call 999 if you are seriously ill and need an ambulance but if you have mild symptoms please stay at home and use 111 online or call 111.’
Nationwide, the average ambulance response time for Category 2 patients rose by 10 minutes, from 22:07 to 32:06.
Data from the Cabinet Office shows London has more people in hospital with COVID-19 than anywhere else in the UK, with more than 4,000 inpatients as of Tuesday this week
Some areas were worse affected than others but all regions except the Isle of Wight saw an increase in their response times.
For North West England the increase was the largest outside of London, rising from 24:25 to 37:37, while it rose from 18:49 to 23:53 in Yorkshire.
This may have been linked to rising numbers of patients – across England, ambulances attended 404,110 incidents in March compared to 373,869 in February.
The average national response time for Category 1 patients, who need resuscitation, rose by just 40 seconds, from 7:19 to 8:07.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: ‘We are working extremely hard, while receiving more emergency calls than ever before, to keep Londoners safe during this unprecedented challenge.
‘We are bringing in 200 extra ambulances and recruiting hundreds of volunteers, student paramedics, and former members of staff to help us.
‘As we tackle the coronavirus and continue to face significant challenges, it is important the public only call 999 in a life-threatening emergency and visit 111 online for urgent medical advice.’
Ambulance data comes as the NHS has revealed March was the quietest month in A&E since NHS records began.
Casualty departments in England recorded just 1.53million attendances last month, down 430,000 (22 per cent) from February.
The number is also 630,000 lower (29 per cent) than March 2019, when 2.17million visits were made to A&E for urgent care.
February 2011 held the previous record for the quietest month in A&E, with 1.6million attendances, according to NHS England data.
Dr Katherine Henderson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: ‘We are concerned that this drop in attendance may mean that people with serious health problems are avoiding going to their emergency department for fear of getting coronavirus.
Casualty departments in England recorded just 1.53million attendances last month, down 430,000 – 22 per cent – on February and 630,000 – 29 per cent – on March 2019
‘While this is the lowest number of attendances since 2010, it is the highest ever level of admissions as a proportion of attendances.
‘This of course reflects the high acuity of patients presenting with COVID-19 problems but in fact is something that has been increasing for some time.
‘Even before COVID-19, we knew that patients were getting sicker – people are living longer and acquiring more health problems.
‘The response to the coronavirus outbreak by the NHS has been superb; capacity has been ramped up at pace and we’ve seen an increase in staff.
‘Our staff continue to give their all throughout this incredibly difficult time and the warmth and recognition of their efforts by the rest of the country has been heartening.’