A patient in Oldham had to wait more than 11 hours for an ambulance to arrive after dialling 999 in an emergency as shocking new data reveals response times for such calls are being repeatedly missed.

The data shows Oldham's ambulance response times are falling far behind the national target, often leaving patients in life-threatening situations such as heart attacks and strokes waiting minutes longer - and in some extreme cases, even hours after calling for help.

The figures, obtained by the Liberal Democrats through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all 10 ambulance trusts in England, paint an alarming picture for patients in an emergency situation across the country, with target response times for ambulances being missed in all but one local area in England.

However, Oldham also has some of the most shocking numbers to emerge from the data set.

Get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up to The Oldham Times’ morning and evening newsletters as well as our breaking news alerts 

Category 1 calls, where 999 is dialled for life-threatening illnesses or injuries, should be responded to in a target of seven minutes.

Yet in one distressing case, a patient in Oldham called 999 for a category 1 incident and was left waiting for 11 hours, 44 minutes and 25 seconds.

This is the longest time a single patient had to wait for emergency treatment in the entire North West throughout 2023.

After Oldham, a patient in Blackpool waited three hours, 47 minutes and 49 seconds.

Beyond these single incidents, the Oldham CCG is also falling behind its target of seven minutes for category 1 calls with patients in the borough waiting on average eight minutes and three seconds for an ambulance to arrive last year.

In addition, the data shows waiting times have steadily increased over the years.

An ambulance might have arrived for a patient in Oldham almost two minutes faster back in 2019, within six minutes and 49 seconds.

This increased past the seven-minute mark in 2020 and every year since until breaching the eight-minute mark last year.

 

Meanwhile, emergency category 2 calls, where patients are at risk of rapidly deteriorating in cases such as suspected strokes and heart attacks, were also responded to in poor timing within Oldham.

Category 2 calls require ambulances to attend within 18 minutes.

Yet in another alarming case, a patient in Oldham waited five hours, 39 minutes and 29 seconds for an ambulance.

However, this was far from the worst in the region as Warrington didn't respond to a patient for more than 25 hours, Liverpool for more than 24 hours and East Lancashire for more than 22 hours.

The Oldham CCG is also showing some signs of improvement when it comes to attending category 2 incidents.

In 2023, the ambulance service had an average wait time of 22 minutes 50 seconds - a marked improvement from 37 minutes in 2022, 38 minutes in 2021, 29 minutes in 2020 and 24 minutes in 2019.

This compares to St Helens CCG, which had the highest on average overall with a wait time of more than 40 minutes.

Oldham CCG also has a better average response time to category 2 calls compared to Bolton (27 minutes), Bury (24 minutes) and Salford (23 minutes).

However, Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale CCG have a faster response time by six seconds at 22 minutes 44.

Compared to the rest of the country, only Windsor and Maidenhead met the Category 2 target with calls responded to within an average of just over 16 minutes.

Reacting to the data, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said: “Calling an ambulance when you or a loved one is in a serious emergency is one of the most distressing moments of someone's life.

"The least people deserve is to know that an ambulance will be able to reach them in time. Sadly, too often that is not happening as these devastating figures show.

“This Conservative government has overseen the complete decimation of local NHS services.

"Under the Conservative Party, the health service has faced unforgivable neglect and it is patients who are bearing the brunt.

“We urgently need investment in our ambulance services.

"For too long staff have not been given the resources they need and patients have been left to suffer unnecessarily.

"Conservative MPs should hang their heads in shame.”

In response, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “We have delivered major improvements in ambulance response times this year, with average waits for Category 2 ‘emergency’ incidents more than 13 minutes faster in 2023/24 than the previous year.

“We have committed an extra £200 million last year, alongside new ambulances, to further expand capacity and improve response times, and the Government is providing the NHS with record funding of nearly £165 billion a year by the end of this Parliament, alongside record numbers of doctors and nurses."

The Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board declined the opportunity to comment.

If you have a story, I cover all things Oldham from food reviews and local business news to music and events, pubs, education, crime, property, health, community concerns and much more. Please email me at Olivia.bridge@newsquest.co.uk or send me a message on Twitter @Livbridge with your news.