UK ambulance service struggles in winter health care crisis

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Official figures show that thousands of patients each week are languishing in ambulances outside overflowing British hospitals. Health care leaders say the growing crisis has likely contributed to scores of deaths. The country’s health system is facing an inferno of pressures, including rising demand for care and a surge in flu and other winter viruses. Figures published Thursday by the National Health Service showed 31% of patients arriving at hospitals in England by ambulance waited at least 30 minutes to be handed over last week, and 15% waited more than an hour. Royal College of Emergency Medicine president Adrian Boyle said more than 200 people who died in England last week were affected by “problems with urgent and emergency care.”