Is the Patient Breathing? - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

From the harrowing 999 calls of people waiting for an ambulance to the paramedics stretched to breaking point, File on 4 goes on the frontline of the ambulance crisis.
Rachel Stonehouse speaks to the family of one man who died after waiting nearly 11 hours for an ambulance and the wife who desperately tried to keep her husband alive after an ambulance failed to turn up on time.
She goes out on shift with hard pressed paramedics and sees the steps which are being taken to try to reduce delays in handing over patients at hospital - blamed as one of the main factors behind poor response times.
In August alone, 138,000 hours were lost to handover delays in England. That equates to nearly 150 patients who could not be attended by an ambulance every hour of every day in that month.
The government says it is committed to easing pressure on the ambulance service - by discharging more patients in hospitals, increasing the number of 999 call handlers and creating more beds.

Reporter: Rachel Stonehouse
Producer: Paul Grant
Research: Scott Hesketh
Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley
Technical Producer: Craig Boardman
Editor: Carl Johnston

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