The app company said its service was typically ‘much faster than the NHS’ (Image: Getty)
Patients are turning to a private Uber-style ambulance service as response times remain dangerously higher than targets.
FlashAid is the UK’s first app that allows users to book an ambulance with a promise it will arrive in under 30 minutes.
Customers can subscribe to the service for as little as £2.99 a month, then pay a fixed fee of £295 (or slightly less for premium subscribers) for a home assessment and treatment.
If patients need to go to , they are charged an additional £99 per hour at the end of their ride.
FlashAid partners with private ambulance services and can transport people to NHS or private hospitals.
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It launched a pilot service in west London and the Thames Valley in December and plans to roll out its service nationwide.
The company’s Maxim Korotich told the Daily Mail demand for his service “speaks for itself” and FlashAid typically gets to patients “much faster than the NHS”.
NHS targets say ambulances should respond to category two calls, including and , within 30 minutes.
They took an average of 47 minutes and 26 seconds in December, health service data shows.
Hospitals remain under intense pressure with more than 98,000 patients on wards last week – the highest so far this winter.
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Professor Julian Redhead, NHS national clinical director for urgent and emergency care, warned this week that with thousands of beds taken up by those with viruses.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said patients and staff were “facing unacceptable conditions in hospitals up and down the country”.
He added: “It will take time to fix the NHS but with investment and proper reform, we can make our health service fit for the future and make sure that annual winter pressures do not automatically lead to an annual winter crisis.”