Emergency beds and ambulances rolled out to tackle delays

As reported by the BBC, thousands of extra hospital beds and hundreds of ambulances will be rolled out in England this year in a bid to tackle the long emergency care delays

The 5,000 new beds will boost capacity by five per cent, while the ambulance fleet will increase by 10% with 800 new vehicles. Details of the £1bn investment have been set out in a joint government and NHS England two-year blueprint.

Questions have also been raised about how the extra resources will be staffed – one in 10 posts in the NHS is vacant, but the King’s Fund health think tank said until that issue was addressed it was “hard to see” how the plan would have an impact.

The government believes the measures, which will be introduced from April, will help the NHS to start getting closer to its waiting time targets.

It has set goals that by March 2023 76% of A&E patients will be dealt with in four hours and there will be an average response time of 30 minutes for emergency calls such as heart attacks and strokes. In December patients waited more than 90.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak said cutting NHS waiting times was one of his five main priorities. “We have an ambitious and credible plan,” he said.