Dial 999... and wait?

"Dial 999... and wait?" - The title of the BBC panorama program I watched last night, the program can be found here if you're interested in watching it yourself!

The program investigates the response times of the three emergency services following government public spending cuts.

Are increased wait times putting peoples lives at risk? The program looks at each service in turn and finally the ambulance service, the one which interested me most due to its links with the NHS and my interest in medicine.

NHS budgets are "ring fenced" meaning they are protected/isolated from public spending cuts. As a result of this you would expect that the NHS ambulance service would be exempt from these cuts. However to meet rising costs the service has been asked to make efficiency savings and to do this cuts have had to be made.

For example the use of enhanced clinical triage where clinicians assess each 999 call and determine how quick of a response each call requires and which calls need no response at all (saving ambulance journeys) as they can be dealt with over the phone.

The case study featured in the program describes an 83 year old woman who suffers a serious fall in her home but manages to call 999 from her mobile to ask for assistance. After waiting for an hour, hoping the ambulance would arrive any minute she called her daughter who then came to the house. She too called the ambulance service but was told her mother wasn't a priority case as she was still breathing and not bleeding. When the situation changed and became more serious an ambulance was dispatched and the woman was taken to hospital.

Despite incidences such as this government statistics show that all 12 ambulance trusts achieved the key  performance target of reaching 75% of all life-threatening situations within 8 minutes.

However representatives from ambulance trusts hinted that these statistics could be misleading and that 999 calls were being re prioritised in order to meet performance targets. For example "upgrading" a less serious incident to life threatening when an ambulance is in the surrounding area and can therefore reach the scene in or under 8 minutes.

There is no evidence to support such claims but representatives from different trusts are said to have all implied a similar message. If the claims were shown to be true they would obviously be taken very seriously and an investigation would occur.

Ultimately the question is, what will happen in the near future? I imagine there are challenges ahead as more savings will need to be made over the coming years. How will this be done? And will it have a significant, visible effect on wait times for the emergency services?