Displaying items by tag: lives at risk

Richard Webber from the College of Paramedics said that members with thirty years’ service have never experienced anything like this. Lives are at risk because patients face unacceptably long waits for 999 emergency callouts for heart attacks and strokes, with some seriously ill patients waiting up to nine hours for an ambulance. Numerous investigations are going on into deaths linked to delays. The problems have forced all ambulance services to be put on their highest levels of alert - meaning that patients who can make their own way to hospital are told to do so. A number of services have brought in the military to support crews, and patients are taken to hospital in the back of police cars. Cases involve waits for crews to reach patients and delays when they arrive at overcrowded A&E‘s and spend hours queuing outside. Also hospitals cannot discharge patients fit to leave because of a lack of community support.

Two defence ministry blunders in one week have put Afghan lives at risk. The UK said not everyone eligible for relocation could be evacuated before forces left Afghanistan, but the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would help those left behind to leave. The first data breach was an email containing addresses of 250 Afghan interpreters mistakenly copied by the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy team (ARAP) pledging assistance with their relocation to the UK. Some of the addresses showed people’s names and associated profile pictures. The mistake could cost lives. Following that error, officials sent another message 30 minutes later advising the recipients to change their email addresses. The second blunder saw MoD officials mistakenly copy 55 people into an email, making their details visible to all recipients. The defence secretary instigated an investigation into data handling, and one official has been suspended pending an outcome.