Patients are having to wait nearly 100 MINUTES just for their 999 calls to be answered

People dialling 999 for an ambulance have been forced to wait up to 1 hour 37 minutes for call handlers to pick up the phone, an investigation reveals.

Patients were also made to wait up to 3 hours for their NHS 111 calls to be answered in December, according to Freedom of Information responses from ambulance trusts.

Meanwhile, those using the 111 service whose symptoms required a call back from a nurse have been waiting more than a day to hear from the service.

The responses, disclosed to the Labour Party, show that last year one patient in the North West was left waiting more than 40 hours to discuss their symptoms with a qualified clinician, while people in other parts of England were forced to wait as long as 30 hours.

Patients waited longer than ever before for ambulances in December, according to official NHS figures.

It took ambulances an average of 90 minutes to ‘category two’ calls, which includes conditions such as heart attacks and strokes.

The NHS target for such an incident is 18 minutes.

In total, more than 50,000 ambulance calls were left ringing for five minutes or longer before being answered.

The NHS does not publish the number of people who hung up before their call is answered.

Wes Streeting MP, Labour’s health spokesman, said: ‘After 13 years of Conservative mismanagement of the NHS, patients can no longer be sure their 999 call will be answered or that an ambulance will arrive when they need one. 

‘People are just praying they don’t fall ill or suffer an accident.

‘Labour will launch the biggest expansion of NHS staff training in history, paid for by abolishing non-doms, so that the NHS is there for us when we need it once again.’