Two 12-hour waits for A&E patients at New Cross Hospital

The waits came as the hospital’s emergency department was visited by 221 more patients in February 2018 than in February 2017.

Winter pressures last month saw the hospital continuing to face challenges, according to a new board report.

As well as the two 12-hour A&E waits, the trust was also fined £48,400 for delays in ambulance handovers.

This saw 102 patients wait in an ambulance from 30 minutes to an hour – with the trust fined £200 per patient – and 28 patients waiting over an hour, costing bosses £1,000 each.

A trust spokesman said: “These are unprecedented times for the NHS and the challenges facing our staff increase on a daily basis.

"It has been one of the most challenging winters on record for all health care providers.

“As well as seeing an increase in patients, we are seeing record numbers of ambulances.

"We always strive to provide the best, high quality, safe care we can for every one of our patients and we have a good working relationship with the West Midlands Ambulance Service which helps us provide the care our patients deserve when they arrive here.

"We are working with partners to do all we can to improve our handover times.”

Councillor Wendy Thompson, Wolverhampton’s Conservative group leader, said: “Twelve hours is far too long for someone to wait – this shouldn’t be happening.

“But New Cross is a very large hospital that covers and extremely big area.

“The pressures on it ordinarily are considerable and I know they need more staff.

“This is not a good thing to hear but I’m sure the hospital isn’t happy about it either.

“Staffing levels need to be increased as much and as quickly as they possibly can.”

The board report says: “The Emergency Department continued to see an increase in attendance numbers during February with an additional 221 patients (2.21 per cent) compared with the same period last year.

“There were two patients who breached the 12-hour decision to admit target during the month.

“One patient’s condition was too unstable to move from the department, and they were eventually moved onto ITU (Intensive Therapy Unit).

“The second patient was a paediatric patient awaiting a bed – we tried to secure a bed outside of the trust without success.

“The fine for ambulances during February was £48,400,00.

"This is based on 102 patients between 30 to 60 minutes at £200 per patient and 28 patients over 60 minutes at £1,000 per patient.”

National guidelines say it should take up to 15 minutes for the handover of patients from ambulance crews to hospital staff.

The trust faced a bill of £105,800 in January after more than 199 patients were left waiting between 30 minutes and an hour, while 66 waited more than an hour.

The fines are collected by Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group.

Dr Helen Hibbs, accountable officer at the group, said: “Money received from ambulance handover fines is reinvested in The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust-chaired A&E Delivery Board for Wolverhampton, following agreement with them as to how it will be best used, to assist in improving services for patients in Wolverhampton.”