An angry member of the public has confronted Health Secretary Steve Barclay in the street, demanding to know why the government has done “bugger all” about lengthy waits for ambulances.
The Cabinet minister was speaking to media outside Moorfields Eye Hospital in Old Street, central London, when a woman interrupted him to highlight how “people have died” during waits for the emergency services.
The passer-by approached Mr Barclay and asked him: “Are you going to do anything about the ambulances waiting, and the people dying out?”
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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.”
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Following the heated interaction, Mr Barclay said that reducing ambulance waiting times is an “absolute priority” for the government.
It comes after a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) showed that patients were facing “frequent and prolonged” waits for ambulances.
The report exposed several cases, such as that of an elderly patient who died after waiting 14 hours for assistance from South Central Ambulance Service.
Mr Barclay told the PA news agency the government was taking a range of measures, including pummelling an extra £150m in funding to the ambulance service, as well as a further £50m into call centres and £30m into St John Ambulance.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
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When asked whether he was worried about the future of the NHS under a likely tax-cutting economy run by Liz Truss, Mr Barclay, who is backing Rishi Sunak in the leadership race, said she was “the longest-serving cabinet minister” but did not comment on her tax policies.
Ms Truss has said she is “completely committed” to the £36bn in extra money that was announced to address the COVID backlog last year through the National Insurance rise – but says this will be funded by general taxation rather than an NI increase.
However, she says she wants to divert billions of pounds earmarked for the NHS to social care in a bid to free up hospital beds.
