A&E delays unacceptable says West Midlands Ambulance chief

Crews are enduring delays handing patients over to hospitals, West Midlands Ambulance Service says.

Its chief executive had written a 'strongly worded' letter to the groups that commission health services, including those in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Stafford.

Hospital trusts have a target of 30 minutes in which to get ambulances back out - which was lapsed on 138,900 occasions in 2013/14 in the West Midlands.

The rules were introduced last year and see trusts fined £200 every time they go over 30 minutes and £1,000 every time it reaches one hour or more.

Money from the fines is distributed back into the health services - including to West Midlands Ambulance Service, which is now hiring eight more hospital liaison officers as a result to add to the 17 it already has.

In 2013/14 paramedics wasted more than 18,000 hours waiting for a spare beds for their patients.

In its monthly briefing to staff, West Midlands Ambulance Service said the letter to commissioners made it clear that they need to 'act immediately' to deal with lengthening delays.

It added: "In recent weeks, the number of crews suffering delayed handovers of patients has been increasing rapidly with some days showing over 100 hours of downtime for this alone."

"In an effort to try and help the situation, the Trust is to increase the number of hospital liaison officers by eight for the period until the end of March."

Problems arise across hospitals in the West Midlands when their under-pressure A&E units become backlogged with patients.

Patients often have to wait in ambulances until space is freed up for them to be moved inside, leading to delays in getting ambulances back out onto the streets.

Anthony Marsh, chief executive of West Midlands Ambulance Service Trust, said the current situation was completely unacceptable.

He added: "The risk is not for the patient at A&E, it is the one that is still waiting for us to arrive.

"It is completely unacceptable that our patients are being forced to wait for our service because crews cannot turnaround in a timely manner."

He said the eight new liaison officers, who are stationed at hospitals across the West Midlands would help, but added: "Whilst this might make a difference in the short term, we need commissioners to work with the hospitals to find long term solutions so that our crews can offload as soon as possible.

"This will make a big difference to protect patient safety."

Most of the new staff will be based at major hospitals, including New Cross in Wolverhampton and Russells Hall in Dudley.

But others will be mobile and can be called to smaller hospitals like Walsall Manor when needed.