An angry woman interrupted a live broadcast with Health Secretary Steve Barclay to accuse him of doing ‘nothing’ to bring down ambulance waiting times.
She demanded to know why the Government had done ‘bugger all’ about lengthy waits for patients to get help despite the Tories being in power for twelve years.
The Cabinet minister was speaking to media outside Moorfields Eye Hospital in Old Street, central London, when the woman interrupted him to highlight how ‘people have died’ during waits for the emergency services today.
It comes after a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) showed that patients were facing ‘frequent and prolonged’ waits for ambulances at South Central Ambulance Service.
The report yesterday exposed several cases, such as that of an elderly patient who waited 14 hours on the floor for assistance after a fall.
In another case, a long delay contributed to the death of a patient who had fallen and was trapped under their bed.
‘Delays in reaching people who had requested emergency assistance were frequent and prolonged,’ the report authors said.
Mr Barclay was given a tour of an operating theatre by surgeons at Moorfields Eye Hospital, before speaking to press on the street outside.
But things didn’t go to plan for him, as during his interviews he was confronted by the member of the public asking: ‘Are you going to do anything about the ambulances waiting, and the people dying out?’
Mr Barclay replied: ‘Of course we are,’ but the woman continued: ‘Don’t you think 12 years is long enough?
‘Twelve years – you’ve done bugger all about it.
‘People have died, and all you’ve done is nothing.’
After delivering the angry words, she turned her back on Mr Barclay and marched away.
The heated interaction attracted quite a lot of attention, with some calling the woman an ‘icon’ for taking on the minister.
Mr Barclay later told media that reducing ambulance waiting times is an ‘absolute priority’ for the Government.
He said: ‘There’s a range of measures that we’re taking.
‘We’re looking at conveyance rates in ambulances, we’re looking at how we address variation in performance, we’re looking at funding – an extra £150 million to the ambulance service, a further £50 million into call centres, for 111 and 999, in terms of call handling, a further £30 million into St John Ambulance around the auxiliary ambulance performance.
‘We’re also then looking at what happens with the ambulance handovers, so emergency departments, how we triage those, how we look at the allocation of this within the system.
‘Of course, that is all connected to delayed discharge and people being ready to leave hospital who are not doing so, and that’s about the integration of care between social care and hospitals.
‘So there’s a range of issues within how we deliver on ambulances, but it’s an absolute priority both for the Government and for NHS England.’
When asked whether he was worried about the future of the NHS under a likely tax-cutting economy run by Liz Truss, Mr Barclay said she was ‘the longest-serving Cabinet minister’ but did not comment on her tax policies.
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