Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 5 September 2022

A NUMBER of Hinckley and Bosworth residents have had to wait ‘unacceptably long’ times for ambulances recently, Bosworth Liberal Democrats have warned.

These long wait times have been described as a ‘growing problem’. And now, councillors who are fed up with them are to bring a motion to the Council’s meeting tomorrow (6 September), where they will call on the Government to take action and sort it for good.

Lib Dem Councillor, Michael Mullaney, of Hinckley’s De Montfort Ward, is the main councillor proposing the motion. He has stressed that “many elderly and injured people are having to wait unacceptably long times for ambulances to arrive”.

He recalled a tragic story of how his friend’s mother had to wait a shocking total of 11 hours for an ambulance to arrive, before tragically passing just days later.

He explained: “A friend of mines 78 year old mother in Barwell had to wait 11 hours for an ambulance after she had a fall. Tragically she died a few days later. Many other people locally report similar situations.

“It’s clear we need a better resourced local NHS that can cope with the demand for it.

“We are calling on the Secretary of State for Health to take urgent action to deal with the problem including doing more to address factors that are contributing to delays, including staff shortages throughout the health and care services.”

He further added: “We are also calling on the government to require ambulance service providers to report response times by postcode in order to target resource where it’s most urgently needed.”

The motion is to be seconded by Barlestone’s Lib Dem Councillor Bill Crooks.