Duke out

Will the Duke and Duchess of Sussex be invited to Charles III’s coronation? The royal family faced a similarly tricky decision over the Duke of Windsor, the former Edward VIII, at Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. Documents released by the National Archives in 2007 reveal that the matter was handled by the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, who contacted the Duke in November 1952 and ‘advised’ him not to attend, adding that the Prime Minister would tell the press that ‘it would not be consistent with usage for coronation to be attended by any former ruler’. That such advice was necessary suggests that the Duke might have been sent a invitation as a formality. Whether he was or not, he did not attend.

State of emergency

How long did people have to wait for an ambulance in December?

– Category 1: ‘immediate response to life-threatening condition’ – mean 10 mins 57 secs (target 7 mins); 90th percentile 19 mins 25 secs (target 15 mins).

– Category 2: ‘serious condition such as stroke or chest pain’ – mean 1 hour 32 mins (target 18 mins); 90th percentile 3 hours 41 secs (target 2 hours).

– Category 3: ‘urgent problem such as an uncomplicated diabetic issue’ – mean 4 hours 19 mins; 90th percentile 11 hours 5 mins (target 2 hours).

– Category 4: ‘a non-urgent problem such as stable clinical cases’ – mean 4 hours 35 mins; 90th percentile 11 hours 39 mins  (target 3 hours)

Dog attacks

A woman was killed in Surrey in an attack by seven dogs she was believed to be walking. How many people are injured by dogs per year?

– In 2020/21, 7,443 people were treated by NHS England consultants for injuries caused by dogs. This was up from 6,097 a decade earlier and 4,699 in 2007/08.

– However, numbers fell in 2020/21, perhaps because the pandemic meant there were fewer people out and about. The worst year was 2019/20, with 8,933 cases.

– In 2020/21, 2,925 cases required further treatment, such as surgery. The most affected age group was those aged under four, of whom 380 required surgery, followed by five- to nine-year-olds (368) and 50- to 54-year-olds with 218.

– Statistics on deaths are available up to 2019, when 2 people were killed. The worst year in the past decade was 2015, when 5 were killed by dogs.