Councillor Riaz Ahmad, pictured, who served as the Chairman of NHS Oldham from 2002 to 2012, has argued the proposals are “dangerous, counter-productive and costly”.
It comes after a leaked NHS document, drawn up by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, showed plans to change the response time for some Red 2 patients, those with “serious but not the most life-threatening” conditions, including stroke and fits, from eight to 19 minutes in England.
Councillor Ahmad, a former Mayor of Oldham, said: “Any clinician will tell you that the stroke patients need to be seen quickly to enhance the chances of full recovery. Late arrival of ambulances will therefore delay the treatment, making the recovery process longer, and more expensive, thereby making any savings in ambulances budget insignificant and counter- productive.”
Councillor Ahmad also criticised the proposed move, stating consultation was needed to examine the full affects for patients.
He said: “The NHS never was, never is and never will be safe in Tory hands.
“The Government is introducing this change without any consultation with clinicians, service providers, commissioners or general public and it smacks of politically expedient financial rather than medical decision-making – financial savings at the expense of patient safety.”
According to the memo, there would be no changes to response times where patients have “immediately life-threatening” conditions, including cardiac arrest, choking and severe bleeding.
Within the document it was stated that the proposals had been “approved by the Secretary of State” and a target date for implementing the proposals was the first week in January.
However, the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, took to Twitter and dismissed the “scaremongering” claims saying he “categorically refutes” the story. He added: “No plans to double ambulance waiting times, and there never have been.”
