Half a day of endless waiting.

In July, Jackie Hulbert, 78, fell at home but was forced to wait eleven hours on the ground before an ambulance arrived.

By his side in this “unworthy” moment, his son Mathew is alerting today to the extent of the crisis in the British health system.

Jackie died two days later in hospital from sepsis, and while no direct link is made to the long hours spent ashore, Mathew has been testifying to the National Health Service ever since. , public and free, the National Health Service (NHS).

On July 10, Mathew Hulbert, 42, was awakened at 4:30 a.m. by a municipal agent.

Her mother, who fell during the night, activated the emergency alarm installed at her home.

Overwhelmed emergency services

A friend drives him home, from where they call an ambulance at 5:01 a.m.

“A nurse in the car finally arrived at 4 p.m., 11 hours later.

She herself called an ambulance which arrived half an hour later.

My mother was taken to hospital where they found she had an infection which turned into sepsis and she died two days later," said Mathew, a resident of Barwell, a small town 160 kilometers north of London.

During this interminable wait, he stays with his mother who cannot be moved because she suffers from the ribs, her son fearing to aggravate his injuries.

The government promises a plan for the public hospital

He gives her food and drink and constantly calls 999, the emergency number, to find out when an ambulance can come.

Not being in a life-threatening emergency, her mother is not considered a priority for the emergency services, which are already overwhelmed.

Such stories regularly make headlines in the United Kingdom, symptoms of the deep crisis affecting the NHS, on the verge of rupture because of the austerity cure started in 2010 and the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.

Nurses and paramedics walked off several times to protest against these dysfunctions and demand better salaries.

They will do it again on February 6.

Presenting a plan to relieve emergencies, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has made this file a priority, announced that the NHS would buy 800 additional ambulances and open 5,000 new hospital beds.

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