What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Paramedics have revealed huge delays and avoidable deaths in the winter crisis.

First responders gave details of chaos on the front line, with a senior manager saying at least two people died at his ambulance trust after being told to make their own way to A&E.

In a Facebook post he said Category 2 calls – emergencies that include strokes that should take 18 minutes – were taking two-and-a-half hours and Category 3 – urgent calls with a two-hour target – were taking eight-and-a-half hours.

At one point, he said, all Category 2 call patients were asked to make their own way to A&E if they had mental capacity.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

He said: “I know of two people who died making their own way. I have had three staff resign and two walk out in tears.

“On New Years Day we had 130 emergency calls with no crew to send them. One lady’s family rang as she was asthmatic. There was no one to send and 45 minutes later they rang saying she’d stopped breathing. She died.”

He booked taxis for patients as “they were quicker than ambulances”.

NHS data revealed 33,000 patients experienced life-threatening delays in ambulances stacked up outside A&E. A paramedic said: “One hospital closed completely between 7pm and 2am.

“A patient was diverted from one A&E to another, who then diverted her, then, after four hours, diverted back to the original once it reopened!”

Union Unison said: “Ambulances queueing outside hospitals show the extreme pressure the NHS is under.

“We’re going to hear more terrible stories unless the Government addresses the severe staffing and funding shortages.”

(Image: PA Archive)

Staff say flu patients are “camped” in A&E for days waiting for a bed as numbers going to hospital with the condition rocketed last week from 2,703 to 4,079. One ambulance trust head of patient flow said: “On average we are coming in to eight to 12 patients who’ve been in the emergency department since the previous day.”

Dr Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “This is the worst it’s been in my 17 years as a consultant.” Another ambulance worker posted to Facebook group UK Paramedic Humour: “I’d love Jeremy Hunt and Theresa May to sit with me while I’m doing CPR on someone while their family is watching and dispatch are telling me there is no back-up.

“Tell me then the NHS isn’t in crisis.”

An NHS England spokesperson said: “The NHS investigates all serious incidents raised by staff.”