AMBULANCE delays forced a doctor to drive a patient to hospital himself.
Staff at Wilmslow Health Centre were left with no choice but to take a patient who had collapsed at the practice to A&E themselves.
They had called for an ambulance but after waiting three hours, and with the patient's condition clinically deteriorating, they decided to act.
Standing outside the hospital after delivering the patient, Dr Amar Ahmed issued a plea to politicians.
He said: “We’re filming this with the permission of the patient to highlight where we have got to.
“We’ve done this a few times before. We’ve been calling ambulances and they don’t turn up or they say ‘call us when the patient has stopped breathing’ I kid you not.
“This is happening year after year after year, it’s only deteriorating.
“The system is totally broken.
“Politicians on both sides need to wake up and do something about it because people are dying.
“Wake up, stop obfuscating, and do something about it now.”
Dr Ahmed added: “This was a gentleman whose condition was really rapidly deteriorating.
“He should’ve been seen much earlier.
“The ambulance didn’t arrive and it’s not the ambulance people’s fault, the system is broken.
“He waited three hours, he was deteriorating, and we had to make that difficult decision to bring him in to save him.”
North West Ambulance Service has apologised for the delays, thanking Wilmslow Health Centre for bringing the patient into hospital.
A spokesperson said: "We are sorry that we haven't been able to get to the gentleman as quickly as we would have liked.
“The NHS is experiencing a significant spike in demand, leading to delays for some patients, but our staff are trying their best to get those who need us as quickly as possible.
"We continue to work closely with our hospital partners to speed up the handover of patients and allow crews to respond to others who need help in the community.
“We are thankful for the actions of Dr Ahmed, Dr Vicki Saunders and their colleagues, and we hope that the patient makes a full and swift recovery."
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