People with chest pain should call 999 despite ambulance strike, says minister

Health minister says life-threatening emergencies will be covered and most critical calls being answered in under 10 minutes

People with chest pain on Wednesday should call 999 despite the ambulance strike in England and Wales, the health minister Will Quince has said, but he admitted that people experiencing such pain were waiting an average of 47 minutes.

People with chest pains or who have had a bad fall – category 2 cases – were waiting more than an hour in some areas, Quince admitted. But he insisted that life-threatening emergencies would be covered on Wednesday and that the most critical category 1 calls were being answered in under 10 minutes.