240 patients left waiting in ambulances at New Cross for half an hour

The total of 240 ambulance delays during January at the Wolverhampton emergency department was the highest for a year, compared with 199 last year.

Another 24 patients waited at least an hour in an ambulance after arriving at the hospital, which was actually lower than the 66 recorded during the same time last year.

These new figures were revealed in The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust board papers for this month.

Chiefs at the Trust have praised their dedicated ambulance staff for the work they do, and have said they make sure patients are treated and handover over to hospital as efficiently as possible.

The papers, published online, also showed the longest waiting ambulance during January was recorded at two hours and 52 minutes.

This was on January 18 when the Trust had 162 ambulances and a total of 395 call-outs on the day.

And the average daily number over the rest of the month were 151 ambulances and 397 call-outs.

A spokesperson for The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust said: “We strive to provide the best, high quality, safe care we can for every one of our patients.

“Our hard-working staff go above and beyond to ensure that patient safety is the highest priority.

“Like many organisations across the country the Trust has seen an increase in ambulance conveyances to the emergency department over the winter period.

“In January 2019 we saw 500 more ambulances arrive at our Trust compared to last year. Out of the 4,690 ambulances we saw in January, five per cent took between 30-60 minutes to handover patients to ED.

“We have a good working relationship with the West Midlands Ambulance Service and will continue to work together to make sure patients are assessed, treated and handed over as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

West Midlands Ambulance Service has confirmed it is in discussion with the Trust about 'intelligent conveyances' between hospitals - which would help improve efficiency.