Hundreds of patients wait more than an hour in ambulances outside Black Country hospitals in a week

NHS England figures show 210 patients waited in an ambulance for at least one hour when they arrived at The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust A&E in the week to Sunday, December 18 – up from 159 the week before.

At Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust (SWB), 225 patients waited in an ambulance for at least one hour on arrival – up from 147 the week before.

At The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust it was 196 patients – up from 148 - and at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust it was 81 – up from 22.

Just over half of the total ambulance arrivals were delayed by half an hour or more at the Dudley trust, while it was just under half at the Wolverhampton trust, 44 per cent at SWB and 32 per cent at the Walsall trust.

Across the Black Country NHS trusts, at least 1,403 hours were lost.

The figures cover the week before a 24-hour strike by ambulance staff across England and Wales over complaints of poor working conditions and pay.

NHS targets state trusts should complete 95 per cent of all ambulance handovers in 30 minutes, with all conducted in less than one hour.

A handover delay does not always mean a patient has waited in the ambulance as they could have been moved into an A&E department but the handover was not completed.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said advanced paramedics and nurses were assisting more patients over the phone or seamlessly transferring patients to other parts of the NHS.

He added: “The ambulance service relies on each part of the health and social care system working together so that our ambulances can get to patients in the community quickly.

"Sadly, the pressures we are seeing in health and social care lead to long hospital handover delays with our crews left caring for patients that need admitting to hospital rather than responding to the next call. The result is that our crews are delayed reaching patients.

“We are working incredibly hard with all of our NHS and social care partners to prevent these delays, looking at new ways to safely hand over patients quickly so that our crews can respond more rapidly and save more lives.”

Matthew Hartland, chief operating officer for NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board, said: "Despite our best efforts, the current level of demand on our emergency departments means we are sometimes seeing patients waiting on ambulances outside A&E and we would like to apologise to them for that.

“We continue to work closely with WMAS colleagues, and we thank them for their continued support. All staff in hospitals and the ambulance service are working hard to treat patients safely and minimise delays. Local hospitals are working together with partners to ensure we are doing all we can to keep patients safe when emergency departments become very busy.

“The public can play their part to support the NHS this winter by coming forward for their flu and Covid vaccines and using services like NHS 111 online for non-urgent advice, and 999 in emergencies."

More than 16,300 handover delays an hour or longer were recorded across all hospital trusts in the week to December 18, according to NHS England – up 31 per cent from 12,500 the week before.

It meant 46,000 hours were lost to delays in handing patients over, a significant rise from 29,000 hours recorded a week prior.

The Royal College of Nursing's director for England Patricia Marquis said: "The figures suggest there is absolutely no slack in the system."

She added that there was a serious lack of bed capacity in the NHS, urging the Government to address pay and vacancies for nurses to improve care.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it is working to increase capacity across the NHS.

“Our number one priority this winter is to keep patients safe and ensure they can access care when and where they need it, which is why we are taking action to reduce ambulance handover delays and boost urgent and emergency care performance," they said.

They said the Government is spending £500 million to speed up discharge from hospital to social care, and £150 million for the ambulance service to meet winter pressures.