ONE in three ambulance callers took themselves to hospital because of long waits last year, according to a poll.
Desperate patients drove, paid for taxis or even took public transport to try and get help faster.
PAAmbulances were hit by crisis in December when NHS demand soared[/caption]
Delays on 999 calls hit record highs in December when the NHS‘ average wait for Category 2 ambulances – including heart attacks and strokes – hit 1.5 hours in England.
A survey of 376 Brits who called an ambulance for themselves or a family member in the past year revealed only half – 55 per cent – actually took the ambulance to hospital.
Long waits meant 17 per cent drove there themselves, while 11 per cent took a taxi.
Another six per cent used public transport, the Liberal Democrats poll found.
It means a combined 34 per cent took other transport to A&E – while eight per cent of callers gave up and never went at all.
Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper said: “These figures reveal the horror of England’s ambulance crisis.
“At the very least the public should be able to expect an ambulance to arrive in their hour of need.
“We need a plan to fix health and social care, including recruiting more paramedics, before another health crisis causes more unnecessary deaths.”
Ambulance services in England fell into crisis over the winter as demand surged but hospitals were too full to take new patients.
This led to long delays emptying ambulances and meant painful waits for 999 callers.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We do not recognise these figures.
“We are working hard to improve ambulance response times which have substantially reduced from the peak of winter pressures in December.
“Our Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan will allow people to be seen quicker by scaling up community teams, expanding virtual wards, and getting 800 new ambulances on the road.”