continue to miss their target. our health correspondent anna collinson reports. this cctv footage shows the agonising wait for help after a man s heart stopped beating. an ambulance crew takes over half an hour to arrive. the target is seven minutes. shortly after, the patient passed away. his son, also a doctor, believes the delay caused his death. every minute of delay counts in the situation where you have a cardiac arrest. cpr is important, but it will not in itself save a patient. it gives you a bit of time before somebody gets a defibrillator. by the time the ambulance crew came, there was nothing to shock, it was a flat line, he had gone. caring for 450,000 covid patients has had a knock on effect on care, including ambulance response times. figures from nhs england show the average wait in august was slightly down compared tojuly,
so what are the unions saying about the idea of compulsory vaccines for nhs staff? there has been not outright strong criticism, but certainly some concern from both sides, really. so the groups which represent nhs trusts and management have raised the concern of, as i said, already you have got pretty high levels of vaccine take up among nhs staff. is there really a problem here that needs to be solved? and the unions are coming at it from another point of view, we have high vacancy rates within the nhs, and they are worried if you make vaccinations mandatory it could put people off from applying for roles in the future. hospital waiting lists in england are now the worst since records began. 5.6 million people were waiting for routine hospital treatment at the end ofjuly, according to the latest figures from nhs england. some of the longest waits are for people needing hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery. and ambulance waiting times also
i could see it happening maybe in a couple of years. i thought maybe she was going to get into the top 100, maybe start to break the top 50. there was definitely always a player there but i had no idea this was going to happen, that she was going to burst out and do what she s done in the us open and at wimbledon. final question for you, chris, do you think with what you ve seen from her, as such a mature player, as she gets to these later rounds, do you think the pressure will be ok? i think she s shown a lot of times already that she s handling it quite well. i think she s already exceeded her own expectations, i think. so i think she ll be ok. thank you very much, chris. so, not too much pressure being put on emma from here in bromley but lots and lots of excitement. the former england football captain rio ferdinand has been giving evidence to mps about racist abuse aimed at football players. he told them racism is becoming normalised because of the prevalence of abuse online and wa
if you go straight through these doors, you go into a safe covid freezone. some patients are still staying away. it has been a priority for us to support patients to see their general practitioner, to be referred on to the hospital, to have the diagnostic test because the earlier we diagnose a condition, the better it will be. the government says it is investing billions of pounds into tackling covid pressures, but it is seen as not enough. the department of health has to have an honest conversation with the general public that the nhs is failing people, even in emergencies, and we need to have a constructive discussion on how we fix it. health officials have warned the nhs will face even more challenges as we head into the difficult winter months. anna collinson, bbc news. saffron cordery, deputy chief executive of nhs providers, which represents hospitals and other health care trusts in england, told joanna gosling the figures reflect the strain the health service is under.
answered, even though the policy is going to come into effect really very soon. james, for the moment thank you. james, for the moment thank you. james shaw in edinburgh. and we ll bring you live coverage of the debate from holyrood, that s in the next half hour. that is the scene in the chamber at the moment. that is the scene in the chamber at the moment. the government is considering whether it should be compulsory for front line nhs workers in england to be vaccinated against covid 19. some unions are warning the move would lead to more staff shortages but the government believe it s essential to protect vulnerable patients. social care minister helen whatley told bbc breakfast that care homes workers should be double vaccinated. so, we have a policy that we ve already legislated for. that is to require those working in care homes, and on the premises, to be doubly vaccinated. and that s because we ve seen through the pandemic that those in care homes are the most vulnerable to cov