Longest ambulance handover delays in the Black Country are at Dudley hospital
Patients arriving to hospitals by ambulance faced longer waits to be handed over to A&E staff compared to the national average in parts of the Black Country.
The latest NHS figures show that at The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, 34 per cent of patients who turned up in an ambulance in the week to February 6 waited longer than half an hour – higher than the national average of 21 per cent.
It was also over the average for England at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, where 27 per cent of the 891 arrivals had to wait more than 30 minutes.
The figure was 13 per cent at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust and three per cent at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.
In a report to The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust's board of directors last month, its chief executive Diane Wake said that care homes closing their doors due to Covid guidance was impacting on delayed patient discharges and ambulance handover times.
A performance report for December, which was put before the board at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust during a meeting earlier this month, said ambulance handover breaches remained high, however did show some improvement for the 30-60 minute target.
It added: "The over 60 minute target breaches showed deterioration during the month.
"There is a comprehensive ambulance handover recovery plan that has been discussed and agreed with West Midlands Ambulance Service."
In a recent report to the board of directors at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, it was recognised that the trust "continues to deliver the best ambulance handover times in the West Midlands".
It said: "This has been achieved despite supporting 99 ambulances intelligently conveyed – from neighbouring emergency departments due to excessive ambulance handover times - in December 2021."
Between 19 and 26 per cent of patients in the Black Country also faced waits of more than four hours from arriving at A&E to admission, discharge or transfer in January, depending on the trust.
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust had the highest percentage – with 26 per cent of the 19,800 patients waiting longer than four hours.
The average for England was also 26 per cent.
More than a fifth of the 14,165 patients who attended A&E at Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust faced waits of more than four hours.
While the figure was 19 per cent at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and 21 per cent at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.
Of the 2,703 emergency admissions at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust in January, 18 per cent of patients were without a bed on a ward within four hours of being admitted.
It was 43 per cent of the of 3,079 emergency admissions at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, 22 per cent of the 5,255 emergency admissions at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and 35 per cent of the 2,796 emergency admissions at Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust.
The average for England was 33 per cent.
