Dial 999... and Wait? Panorama


Dial 999... and Wait?

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Dial 999... and Wait?. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

The Government has got to make sure that those forces that are failing

:00:02.:00:07.

are brought up to the standard of those that are not. And why dialing

:00:07.:00:17.
:00:17.:00:25.

999 does not always mean that they June 11th last year. It is the

:00:25.:00:29.

middle of the night and this antique jewellery store in Surrey

:00:29.:00:34.

has some unwelcome visitors. It is something the own Angela French

:00:34.:00:37.

hoped she would never see. It is clearly well-planned. They know

:00:37.:00:41.

exactly where they are going. cased the joint. They must have

:00:41.:00:45.

been inside and outside, looking from outside and working out which

:00:45.:00:51.

cabinet had silver in and which were worth targeting. Until two

:00:51.:00:54.

years ago they had not been a single robbery in this shop but

:00:54.:00:59.

since then there have been four like this at two of them saw the

:00:59.:01:03.

thieves making off with tens of thousands of pounds worth of stock.

:01:03.:01:07.

In every occasion they were long gone before the police arrived. How

:01:07.:01:14.

long from the initial alarm going off? About 20 minutes. 20 minutes?

:01:14.:01:18.

Did that surprise you? Very much. You think the police are around but

:01:18.:01:22.

they are not at all. During the last raid on the shop, the raiders

:01:22.:01:27.

reversed a car into a battering ram to force the door. This time the

:01:27.:01:31.

police were quicker, arriving in 10 minutes. But again the gang had

:01:31.:01:38.

fled. If they actually had more patrols and cars... They say there

:01:39.:01:43.

are four in Waverley each night. If they just had one going round

:01:43.:01:46.

Haslemere at night, which is a big area, surely that would be a

:01:46.:01:51.

deterrent. Surrey police say that after the 4th raid, police officers

:01:51.:01:55.

were deployed on strategic roads to trace the offenders. They admit

:01:55.:01:58.

that around the time the shop was first targeted they failed to

:01:58.:02:02.

respond to about a quarter of emergency calls within 15 minutes.

:02:02.:02:08.

They say the response times are now improving. But that is cold comfort

:02:08.:02:12.

to Angela French. To date nobody has been caught. You are forever

:02:13.:02:16.

thinking when you go to bed that the telephone will win in the

:02:16.:02:20.

middle of the night. It is horrible to get here and find the mess and

:02:20.:02:25.

chaos, even worse than things being taken. Are incidents like this,

:02:25.:02:29.

where police response times appear to be too slow, just bad luck or is

:02:29.:02:34.

something else going on? I have been speaking to frontline police

:02:34.:02:38.

officers from across the country. They did not want to be identified

:02:38.:02:42.

but they say that huge budget cuts to policing over the past two years

:02:42.:02:47.

are leading to longer emergency response times. Do you think that

:02:48.:02:50.

potentially police officers or members of the public could be put

:02:50.:02:54.

in danger because of these cuts? That is one thing I was discussing

:02:54.:02:59.

with my partner tonight. I think it is an absolute inevitability.

:02:59.:03:02.

felt safe in my role as a police officer for the last years but with

:03:02.:03:06.

these cuts going on I feel that if I press that emergency button on my

:03:06.:03:10.

radio, it will take longer for my colleagues to resist me.

:03:10.:03:15.

communications regularly and routinely say they have up to four

:03:15.:03:19.

emergency response jobs but quite often there are no units available.

:03:19.:03:24.

The cuts to police funding from central Government are big. 20% by

:03:24.:03:29.

2015 in England and Wales. Understandably, the police are not

:03:29.:03:33.

happy. But one influential think- tank believes it is about time the

:03:33.:03:38.

police became more efficient. think people in the emergency

:03:38.:03:41.

services and the public services have got used to steady budget

:03:41.:03:45.

increases for many years, particularly the police. So any

:03:45.:03:49.

budget cut seems quite shocking to them. But it is still the case that

:03:49.:03:54.

these services have never had more money than they have now. Huge

:03:54.:03:59.

increases in spending compared to 10 years ago, with the police

:03:59.:04:04.

having the most generous spending increases. In that time, a lot of

:04:04.:04:07.

forces, I would say, have sat on their laurels and not taken tough

:04:07.:04:12.

decisions about how they can organise themselves best. Somebody

:04:12.:04:17.

is injuring your family? The issue has become a political battlefield.

:04:17.:04:24.

The big question now is how officers on the ground to our

:04:24.:04:32.

policing in the age of austerity. Adam Ashby and Lee Spencer of

:04:32.:04:35.

emergency response officers in the Fife division of Greater Manchester

:04:35.:04:45.
:04:45.:04:45.

Police. -- Oldham. They are on their way to help a fellow officer

:04:45.:04:55.
:04:55.:05:01.

Our car gets there in six minutes, long enough for the situation to

:05:01.:05:08.

have calmed down. No sooner have they arrived at the station with

:05:08.:05:15.

the arrested man, but Adam and Lee are out on another call. This time

:05:15.:05:20.

it is somebody feeling suicidal. Obviously this is more appropriate

:05:20.:05:24.

for medical practitioners and police officers. But sometimes the

:05:24.:05:28.

police are the only ones available to respond. We arrive within five

:05:28.:05:32.

minutes, but before we can even get out of the car to investigate,

:05:32.:05:37.

another emergency call comes in. think we have got to go somewhere.

:05:37.:05:43.

We are on the move. Have you got a description? It is one of the pubs.

:05:43.:05:51.

There is somebody in their kicking off. Is this an emergency call?

:05:51.:05:54.

There are reports that a woman is being violent and threatening. The

:05:55.:05:58.

last Government made all police forces signed a pledge which said

:05:58.:06:01.

they had to attend her than emergencies like this within 15

:06:01.:06:08.

minutes and 20 within rural areas. -- urban emergencies. This was

:06:08.:06:13.

abandoned in a drive to reduce red tape. Even so Adam and Lee are at

:06:13.:06:17.

the call on the other side of Oldham in 10 minutes. But it is not

:06:17.:06:22.

quite the emergency they had expected. Come on, stand up. There

:06:22.:06:27.

is no sign of violence. Just a woman too drunk to look after

:06:27.:06:33.

herself. Come and sit down over here. The officers cannot leave her

:06:33.:06:37.

alone in this state. They have no choice but to take her home.

:06:37.:06:42.

much have you had to drink tonight? The officers were on a priority

:06:42.:06:46.

call, then they got this emergency call. So they had to come to this

:06:46.:06:51.

first. Things are getting busier tonight. There are only so many

:06:51.:06:54.

resources to go around and they have had to make a judgement about

:06:54.:07:00.

what to attend. The impression I get tonight is that you have not

:07:00.:07:05.

stopped. It has been one call after another. You have not even had a

:07:05.:07:08.

five-minute break. It seems like you are operating at capacity.

:07:08.:07:14.

would say that is fairly accurate. Individual officers in this

:07:14.:07:18.

division are extremely dedicated. I am not the sort of person who is

:07:19.:07:23.

going to let something bad happened to somebody, somebody get injured,

:07:23.:07:29.

property damage, just so that I can have a break. Has he seen what has

:07:29.:07:34.

been stolen from inside? He reckons it has been cleared out. Despite

:07:34.:07:38.

the cuts, Greater Manchester police are among the best performers in

:07:38.:07:43.

the country for their response times. Currently they attended 95%

:07:43.:07:50.

of all emergency calls within 15 minutes. But even they sometimes

:07:50.:07:57.

get it wrong. Last month, secondary as saw a man damaging vehicles in

:07:57.:08:05.

this street in Oldham. -- Sikander saw a man. He dialled 999 but the

:08:05.:08:08.

man started kicking down at the door to a house as he was on the

:08:08.:08:11.

telephone. I said that he was kicking the door down and he had

:08:11.:08:15.

gone into the house. Luckily the residents were not at home, but we

:08:15.:08:18.

were dreading the fact that somebody could be at home and what

:08:18.:08:22.

he could have potentially done. must have looked to you at that

:08:22.:08:26.

point like there was an immediate threat to someone. It was more than

:08:26.:08:33.

an immediate threat. By now the man was intimidating onlookers, but the

:08:33.:08:38.

police were nowhere to be seen. By the time Sikander made his call, it

:08:38.:08:43.

took them 40 minutes to arrive. The man was eventually detained, but

:08:43.:08:47.

Sikander thinks the response was not good enough. How has this left

:08:47.:08:51.

you feeling about the police? have lost confidence in the police.

:08:51.:08:58.

We think that 999 might not get an emergency response. Local officers

:08:58.:09:01.

go out to meet President and apologised. They said that human

:09:01.:09:09.

error was to blame. -- local officers came out to meet residents

:09:09.:09:12.

and apologised. The police have been telling us across the country

:09:12.:09:15.

that incidents like this with unacceptably slow police response

:09:15.:09:19.

times are happening more frequently. But the Government points to report

:09:19.:09:22.

by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary published last year

:09:22.:09:27.

that says that response times are being maintained. It turns out that

:09:27.:09:32.

report surveyed only 10 police forces out of the 43 in England and

:09:32.:09:40.

Wales about their response times. In six, they found improvements. We

:09:40.:09:44.

decided to use the Freedom of Information Act to investigate

:09:44.:09:49.

response times from every force in the UK. We found that the police

:09:49.:09:52.

emergency response times vary significantly across the country

:09:52.:10:00.

and even within force areas. Here are some of the worst areas that we

:10:00.:10:03.

have found. In the London borough of Hillingdon, 20% of emergency

:10:03.:10:09.

calls did not get a response within 15 minutes. For Derby, that figure

:10:09.:10:15.

was 19% and in Dover, 28% of emergency calls did not see a

:10:15.:10:19.

police officer on the scene within 15 minutes. When looking at

:10:19.:10:22.

response times, it is hard to compare like with like as there is

:10:22.:10:26.

no uniform way of recording statistics and each force has its

:10:26.:10:31.

own geographical differences. But they do seem to be striking

:10:31.:10:37.

disparities in response times around the country. Lord Mackenzie

:10:37.:10:41.

was a policing adviser to the last Government. He believes that there

:10:41.:10:45.

is a link between slow response times in some areas and Government

:10:45.:10:51.

cuts. It is extremely worrying. The police are not going to get it

:10:51.:10:54.

right every time but certainly I think the figures reflect the cuts

:10:54.:10:59.

in real terms. I don't think you can put any other gloss on it,

:10:59.:11:02.

quite frankly. I think the Government has clearly got to make

:11:02.:11:05.

sure that those forces that are failing are brought up to the

:11:05.:11:13.

standard of those that are not. they there at the moment? Weapons

:11:13.:11:19.

involved? One reason why Greater Manchester Police has been able to

:11:19.:11:22.

maintain its response times despite losing 900 staff could be that

:11:22.:11:28.

crime is down by 12% here. But that is not the only reason. By

:11:28.:11:31.

identifying people who use the service again and again, and

:11:31.:11:36.

getting other agencies to deal with them, the force has reduced the

:11:36.:11:41.

number of 999 calls. Now that money is tight, you have to look all the

:11:41.:11:45.

time at what you repeat the dresses are, repeat offenders, getting them

:11:45.:11:50.

early in the offending cycle. That helps take the pressure off the

:11:50.:11:56.

officers. In Manchester, the cuts will continue. I hope that it will

:11:56.:11:59.

not play out in things like emergency response but clearly the

:11:59.:12:03.

public may notice that the police station is closing. It may be when

:12:03.:12:08.

they phone us that we say, can you do it online? Do we really need to

:12:08.:12:12.

send an officer to your address? The Government declined an

:12:12.:12:15.

interview for this programme but told Panorama that the most

:12:15.:12:21.

important target is cutting crime and that is down at 4.2% last year.

:12:21.:12:25.

They have swept away red tape such as the policing pledge, they say,

:12:25.:12:31.

to help police forces burgers on their core mission, to cut crime. -

:12:31.:12:35.

- focus on their core mission. They say that they are focusing on

:12:35.:12:40.

cutting back office functions. But is it feasible to keep cutting his

:12:40.:12:43.

support staff without a noticeable impact on the front line? I think

:12:44.:12:48.

there is a limit to how much we can cut in the back office, as it were,

:12:48.:12:50.

without affecting frontline officers on the ground, frontline

:12:51.:12:55.

policing as it is called. The response is about getting to the

:12:55.:13:03.

receiving -- to the scene fairly quickly and that is about police

:13:03.:13:07.

officers on the street at any one time. Over the next two years there

:13:07.:13:12.

will be more cuts and some of them seem quite draconian. Wouldn't you

:13:12.:13:16.

be concerned that at some point we will cross a line and the public

:13:16.:13:21.

will notice a big difference? of course, but I cannot see why we

:13:21.:13:25.

are anywhere near that line yet. The police have had 30 years of

:13:25.:13:30.

steady spending increases. Their budgets compared to 10 years ago

:13:30.:13:33.

are two-thirds higher than they used to be. We are nowhere near

:13:33.:13:37.

that level, even with the cuts that they are planning to bring in. The

:13:37.:13:41.

hope is that this financial pressure, which is overdue, against

:13:41.:13:51.

the police forces to think again When it doms getting to you in an

:13:51.:13:55.

emergency it's not just the police feels the heat. Get out, stay out,

:13:55.:14:00.

call 999. Traditionally the Fire Service have the fastest response

:14:00.:14:04.

times of all the emergency services. That makes sense, given a house

:14:04.:14:10.

fire can double in size every minute if it's left unattended. Yet

:14:10.:14:13.

Government figures out this summer show the average response time it a

:14:13.:14:19.

house fire has gone up by 22% in the past ten years. That means

:14:19.:14:23.

people are waiting more than a minute longer for help to arrive. A

:14:23.:14:30.

minute that could mean the difference between life and death.

:14:30.:14:36.

Coventry and a fire in a factory is spreading quickly. West Midlands

:14:36.:14:40.

Fire Service are on the scene within six minutes. At its height

:14:40.:14:47.

over 100 firefighters are deployed. There are propain cylinders outside

:14:48.:14:51.

the building as well. For West Midlands fire brigade dealing with

:14:51.:14:54.

an incident like this is getting increasingly difficult. In the last

:14:54.:14:57.

two years, this region has been hit with cuts double the average in

:14:57.:15:03.

England. More are on the way. The fire chief here is trying to raise

:15:03.:15:08.

money and recognises the need for efficiency savings. In his worst

:15:08.:15:13.

case scenario he may have to close 11 of their 30 fire stations and

:15:13.:15:22.

Laos a third of his firefighters. What effect will it have on this

:15:22.:15:26.

region if you lose a third of firefighters? People will be at

:15:26.:15:29.

risk. The information will be more at risk. My firefighters will be

:15:29.:15:33.

more at risk. It will take us longer to marshal our resources to

:15:33.:15:36.

get them there in sufficient numbers to make that critical

:15:37.:15:46.

intervention. Under that pressure, how can a fire brigade like West

:15:46.:15:48.

Midlands cut costs and response times? Could the answer be

:15:48.:15:56.

replacing up to a third of these with these? This is known as a

:15:56.:16:00.

brigade response vehicle. Frbgts it is saving money on fuel in

:16:00.:16:04.

comparison to front-line appliance. They're nimble in traffic as well.

:16:04.:16:10.

We are able to get to an incident quicker. We may be able to

:16:10.:16:13.

alleviate that incident going further out of control with some

:16:13.:16:20.

quick actions. For firefighters on the ground, though, there are

:16:20.:16:24.

concerns about the Brigade Response Vehicles or BRVs as they're known.

:16:24.:16:28.

They hold only a minute's worth of water or foam. They're only

:16:28.:16:34.

designed to put out small fires. You could have a BRV turn up at a

:16:34.:16:38.

big incident and we've got a responsibility to help people. You

:16:38.:16:42.

know, if they're in a dangerous scenario, we need to be in there

:16:42.:16:47.

and help them. We're going to be putting lives, I know you shouldn't,

:16:47.:16:51.

you want to go in there. This would have been a great as

:16:51.:16:55.

well as, but we will have toint deuce it as an instead of. What's

:16:55.:16:59.

the problem with that? There won't be the same weight of attack. They

:16:59.:17:04.

won't deal with the full range of tasks that a current engine does.

:17:04.:17:08.

These are quite good vehicles. They're perhaps coming to these

:17:08.:17:11.

choices sooner than we would have done if it wasn't for the financial

:17:11.:17:14.

climate. The Government is cutting funding by just over 3% in England.

:17:14.:17:18.

The brigades that cover the big urban areas are funded by both

:17:18.:17:23.

central and local government. The local authorities say because their

:17:23.:17:27.

funding is decreasing, they have little but to make cuts too. That's

:17:27.:17:31.

why brigades like West Midlands are so concerned. Ministers say the

:17:31.:17:38.

public has nothing to worry about. Do you believe that large cuts

:17:38.:17:44.

could cost lives, as some firefighters believe they could?

:17:44.:17:48.

I don't believe that the evidence demonstrates that either. What we

:17:48.:17:57.

have seen is a consistent downward number, downward trajectory in the

:17:57.:18:02.

number of fatalities and injuries. At some point don't you have to

:18:02.:18:07.

shout stop? If indeed in one area 11 out of 38 fire stations closed,

:18:07.:18:13.

surely at some point you step in and say, this is unacceptable.

:18:13.:18:16.

fire authority has to meet its statutory obligations under the

:18:16.:18:21.

Fire Services act. It's never been suggested by any brigade, chief

:18:21.:18:25.

officer, that isn't the case. The guardians of how that's delivered

:18:25.:18:28.

at a local level are the Democratically elected local

:18:28.:18:37.

Councilors. You stay there and the ambulance is on its way. So, what

:18:37.:18:42.

about the third emergency service? Funding for the NHS has been ring-

:18:42.:18:46.

fenced. So you'd imagine that the Ambulance Service wouldn't have to

:18:46.:18:52.

worry about cuts. In fact, to meet rising costs, many ambulance trusts

:18:52.:18:56.

have been asked to make huge efficiency savings. They too are

:18:56.:19:03.

under pressure. Six weeks ago, Patricia Warbey had a particularly

:19:03.:19:10.

nasty fall at home. She fell onto the floor, smashing her knee onto

:19:10.:19:17.

the floor quite hard. She's got a replacement knee caps in both knees.

:19:17.:19:22.

And she couldn't get back up. She knew she had hurt herself quite

:19:22.:19:27.

badly. Unable to move, Patricia used her mobile to dial 999. Then

:19:28.:19:32.

she waited, and waited. Always thinking the ambulance would arrive

:19:32.:19:36.

any moment. After an hour with no sign of help arriving, she called

:19:36.:19:45.

her daughter. Ten minutes later, I come to the house and we come in.

:19:45.:19:50.

The Ambulance Service wasn't here. As there was still no ambulance

:19:50.:19:55.

Melissa dialled 999 herself and not just once. She says over 40 minutes

:19:55.:20:00.

she rang three times. Each time she was told that as her mum was

:20:00.:20:06.

breathing and not bleeding, she wasn't a priority. I was scared for

:20:06.:20:11.

her. It was horrible. It was really, really frightening. It's just not

:20:11.:20:14.

nice watching somebody that you love lying there in pain and

:20:14.:20:17.

there's nothing you can do. You have people on the other end of the

:20:17.:20:22.

phone telling you that actually, that person lying there, that you

:20:22.:20:28.

love dearly, isn't critical enough to come out and help straight away.

:20:28.:20:33.

The ambulance arrived nearly two hours after the original call. By

:20:33.:20:39.

then, Melissa's mum was shaking violently. I was led to believe

:20:39.:20:49.

that if you phoned 999 an ambulance would arrive within 10, 15, 20

:20:49.:20:56.

minutes, half an hour at the moment. That's what my preconception was.

:20:56.:20:59.

Patricia is still in hospital recovering from an operation to

:20:59.:21:05.

repair her broken leg. East of England Ambulance Trust say the

:21:05.:21:09.

information given to them was that there were no serious injuries. So

:21:09.:21:14.

the patient was given a one-hour response time. The caller was told

:21:14.:21:18.

to Fonebak if symptoms arose. They say as soon as they received new

:21:18.:21:24.

information indicating an emergency, they dispatched an ambulance. But

:21:24.:21:27.

there is some good news for Britain's Ambulance Service.

:21:27.:21:32.

Earlier this year, it was announced for the first time all 12 trusts in

:21:32.:21:38.

England hit a key Government target. They attended 75% of life-

:21:38.:21:42.

threatening emergencies within eight minutes. One reason behind

:21:42.:21:51.

the improvement is a measure called enhanced clinical triage, that

:21:51.:21:55.

involves medical clinician as sesing a call to see how quick a

:21:55.:22:02.

response is needed. Some cases people may be rung back and asked

:22:02.:22:09.

further questions. Some trusts say this can help with some 900 calls a

:22:09.:22:13.

week. You can't see the patients. Not all patients are fully aware

:22:13.:22:17.

when they're in pain. There have been a number of occasions that the

:22:17.:22:20.

triage hasn't worked and patients have been in difficulty and they

:22:20.:22:25.

should have had a faster response. We've spoken to other

:22:25.:22:30.

representatives from four trusts and we've also spoken to five front

:22:30.:22:34.

line paramedics in stations around the country. Now they say that they

:22:34.:22:39.

and their colleagues are concerned that clinical triage can be used to

:22:39.:22:43.

hide failings in response times and to massage the success rate in

:22:43.:22:49.

hitting that eight-minute target. They didn't want to appear on

:22:49.:22:53.

camera for fear of loseing their jobs, but they allowed us to use

:22:53.:22:59.

their statements. They told us they've had genuine emergencies

:22:59.:23:02.

downgraded when the ambulance wasn't going to meet the deadline.

:23:02.:23:07.

While some believe that low priority calls, where an ambulance

:23:07.:23:11.

happens to be close by, are being upgraded to an emergency. We are

:23:11.:23:15.

seeing jobs where they're being reprioritised. We know why it's

:23:15.:23:19.

been downgraded because we're not hitting the targets if everything

:23:19.:23:23.

remained correctly prioritised. Instead of life threatening, you

:23:23.:23:27.

can get to it and it turns out to be nothing of a sort. It was put

:23:27.:23:31.

down as that possibly because you were near to the call and you'll

:23:31.:23:34.

get there within eight minutes lot of colleagues are wondering, is

:23:34.:23:38.

this being done on purpose? I can't prove that, certainly from

:23:38.:23:43.

experience after ten years in the job, it points in that direction.

:23:43.:23:46.

The Department of Health told us that they have no evidence that

:23:46.:23:50.

trusts are trying to meet targets in this way. But they said if they

:23:50.:23:54.

were, it would be taken extremely seriously and care the quality

:23:54.:23:58.

commission would be asked to investigate. They also told us that

:23:58.:24:01.

callers may well be put in different categories according to

:24:01.:24:05.

the information they give, but that the aim is to provide the most

:24:05.:24:12.

appropriate clinical response. One indicator of how well ambulance

:24:12.:24:15.

trusts are doing is in how they deal with some of the most serious

:24:15.:24:20.

cases. Like stroke. When a stroke strikes, the damage spreads like a

:24:20.:24:24.

fire in the brain. This Government campaign highlighted the importance

:24:24.:24:29.

of recognising the symptoms of a stroke and calling an ambulance.

:24:29.:24:39.
:24:39.:24:39.

When stroke strikes, act fast. Acting fast is the key to treating

:24:39.:24:44.

strokes. This is Nikki Camp. Being treated quickly potentially saved

:24:45.:24:50.

her life and probably saved her from lifelong disabilities. Fear of

:24:50.:24:54.

having something permanent when I have the next 40, touch wood, years

:24:54.:24:58.

of my life left to live with potential speech disability or a

:24:58.:25:04.

physical disability trying to raise a family, not being able to work

:25:04.:25:08.

again, or the worst case scenario thaw don't survive. The treatment

:25:08.:25:13.

is more successful the quicker it's given. The ambulance got to her

:25:13.:25:21.

within ten minutes and she was at a specialist unit within the hour.

:25:21.:25:28.

Would you make a grip for me. new statistics reveal many stroke

:25:28.:25:31.

victims aren't as fortunate as this and end up waiting too long. These

:25:31.:25:36.

figures for England have only been made public since 2011, so it's

:25:36.:25:40.

impossible to say if things are getting better or worse. What is

:25:41.:25:45.

clear is that there's room for improvement. Only 63% of stroke

:25:45.:25:50.

victims are making it to an acute unit within the crucial first hour.

:25:50.:25:59.

So much for fast. If we're getting 63% of patients to hyperacute

:25:59.:26:04.

stroke units within the hour, then we're failing 37% of patients with

:26:04.:26:08.

strokes within England. That is a cause for concern, because we've

:26:08.:26:11.

all got family and we all know people that may have suffered with

:26:12.:26:19.

stroke. We would want to identify them quickly. -- and ensure they're

:26:19.:26:23.

in the appropriate place as quickly as possible. The Department of

:26:23.:26:28.

Health in England means specialist care means there are fewer fatality

:26:28.:26:32.

from stroke each year. They say trusts are performing well but

:26:32.:26:35.

admit these indicators show some areas where improvement can be made.

:26:35.:26:38.

They say they'll work with local NHS organisations to make sure that

:26:38.:26:44.

happens. The thought of an ambulance not arriving in time or

:26:44.:26:48.

not arriving at all, perhaps in some cases, would be pretty

:26:48.:26:52.

unimaginable. You expect to dial 999, ask for an ambulance and for

:26:52.:26:57.

an ambulance to be dispatched and to arrive in a timely fashion.

:26:57.:27:04.

it hadn't turned up, we'd have been, well, I might not... Yeah, it's

:27:04.:27:07.

pretty unimaginable. I try not to think about that. Those who run the

:27:07.:27:11.

emergency services know that the challenges of the next few years

:27:11.:27:15.

will be enormous. And right across the country, they're finding ways

:27:15.:27:20.

to meet the new mantra of the age of austerity, doing more with less.

:27:20.:27:28.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS