Revealed: Ambulances kept waiting more than 1,000 HOURS outside hospitals
Ambulances were kept waiting for more than 1,000 hours before they could drop off patients in just one month at hospitals in the Black Country and Staffordshire.
Patients were forced to wait up to two hours in ambulances and corridors before being taken into hospital care, according to new figures.
At Russells Hall Hospital, in Dudley, paramedics wasted 338 hours waiting to handover patients in June. One patient had to wait 1 hour 56 minutes.
At New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton the paramedics were forced to waste 262 hours in the same month, at Walsall Manor 172 hours, Sandwell 121 hours and at Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital in Stafford 172 hours.
The time wasted is calculated by adding the total number of waiting hours AFTER the targeted 15 minute patient handover period.
Hospital trusts risk financial penalties for delaying ambulance staff – £200 per patient waiting between 30 and 60 minutes, £1,000 per patient waiting more than an hour.
West Midlands Ambulance Service deploys hospital ambulance liaison officers to work with bed managers to help with the handover process.
A spokesman said: “A&E departments are working hard to provide the highest standards of care. Only around a third of A&E patients arrive by ambulance so at times of peak demand, handover delays do occur.”
Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust Chief operating officer, Paul Bytheway, said said: “The new emergency treatment centre opening on November 20 will help reduce handover times as we are increasing our ambulance triage bays from four to 12.”
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust said: “We are seeing record numbers of ambulances arriving. The care we provide for all our patients will always be the high quality, safe care they deserve.”
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust chief operating officer Rachel Barlow said: “We apologise to patients who have been kept waiting longer than normal.”
Walsall Healthcare NHS trust said: “There are moments of high demand due to surges of activity and seasonal pressure which may lead to ambulance waits.”
County Hospital did not respond in time for publication. The information was obtained from a Freedom of Information Request.
