Hundreds of patients waiting over an hour in ambulances outside region's hospitals

New figures reveal hospitals in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Birmingham are particularly badly hit.

Nationally, more than 8,000 patients waited longer than an hour to be handed over from ambulance teams to A&E staff.

And alternative figures for those waiting more than 30 minutes show most hospital trusts in the West Midlands are worse than the national average.

NHS England says 8,401 delays of more than 60 minutes were recorded across all acute trusts in the seven days to December 12. This is up slightly from 8,211 in the previous week, and represents 10 per cent of all ambulance arrivals.

A further 11,102 patients waited between 30 and 60 minutes to be handed over, down slightly from 11,155 in the week to December 5. It means nearly a quarter of all arrivals last week were kept waiting for at least half an hour – the same proportion as the previous week.

A handover delay does not always mean a patient has waited in the ambulance. They may have been moved into an A&E department, but staff were not available to complete the handover.

The figures give a snapshot of the pressure hospitals in England are continuing to face.

Analysis of the figures shows that University Hospitals Birmingham, which operates Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Good Hope and Heartlands hospitals, reported the highest number for an individual trust in the week to December 12 – 472 delays of more than 60 minutes. The third worst was University Hospitals of North Midlands, which runs Stafford and Royal Stoke hospitals, with 320 delays. Alternative figures for the percentage of ambulances having to wait more than 30 minutes again shows Staffordshire and Birmingham hospitals among the worst hit.

Royal Shrewsbury and Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital were also at the top of the list, with 52 per cent of patients waiting more than 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E. That compares to an English average of 23 per cent.

Today’s figures are dramatically higher than this time last year. Then, only five per cent of handovers took more than 60 minutes and 15 per cent took more than 30 minutes.

Ambulance services have called for people to only call an ambulance in a genuine emergency.