A UK government watchdog has warned that the National Health Service (NHS) is struggling to keep up with the demand due to an “understaffed and underfunded” ambulance service.
The National Audit Office warned Wednesday that the number of ambulances that have been able to meet the standard 8-minute response time has dropped to 72.5 percent, slipping away from the 75-percent target.
The figure shows that “national performance against response time targets … is getting worse,” according to NAO.
The report stated that only one in three ambulance services were able to respond 999 emergency calls on time from 2015 to 2016.
“Ambulance services are a vital part of the health service but much of their ability to work better greatly depends on other parts of the health system,” said Amyas Morse, head of the NAO.
“Until clinical commissioning groups see ambulance services as an integral part of that system it is difficult to see how they will become…