London’s ambulances are failing to reach the most critically ill patients within its own target times in areas inhabited by Turkish speakers.
Fewer than half the ambulances sent to the highest priority patients in Haringey missed the national eight-minute target after the 999 call.
These include the highest-priority patients who have stopped breathing and do not have a pulse, and those who have suffered a suspected stroke or fit.
In Enfield, another borough home to many members of the Turkish-speaking communities, just 52 percent of ambulances met the target.
In Islington and the south London borough of Bexley, the rate was 55 per cent, whereas Southwark was above the London average at 66 per cent.
Malcolm Alexander, chairman of the London Ambulance Service Patients’ Forum, told the Evening Standard that he feared increasing pressures and staff shortages were causing a breakdown in relations between London Ambulance Service (LAS) executives and front-line staff.
Mr Alexander said: “I think they are not coping. We have been monitoring the London Ambulance Service for 10 years and it’s never been down to anything like this. If it went down to 70 per cent we would consider it to be a disaster.
“We keep saying to the commissioners: ‘What are you doing about this performance?’ Everybody seems completely stunned.”
But LAS director of operations Jason Killens said: “We will continue to prioritise our ambulance crews so we get to the most seriously ill or injured patients first. Our highly skilled clinicians respond to life and death situations daily but we also receive many calls from patients who don’t need an emergency ambulance.
“Recently Londoners have called us to ask for an emergency ambulance for a cat with a broken leg, a person with a tissue in his ear and a woman with period pain.
“We’re very busy, please only call us in a genuine emergency and at all other times call NHS 111, visit your GP or pharmacist or alternatively make you own way to hospital.”