Ambulance handover delays: Almost 300 patients left waiting more than an hour across the region

NHS data showed 272 people waited to be transferred to A&E staff in the week to January 23 as leaders warned the pressure on the health service was "intense".

Figures show a total of 870 people overall were waiting for more than 30 minutes out of the 4,323 patients admitted to hospital, up from 4,190 the week before.

It comes after the West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) said the handover delays were "truly dreadful" with warnings that patients are being put at risk.

Gwen Nuttall, chief operating officer for the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust which runs New Cross Hospital, said at a board meeting the situation was improving.

She described the breaches in December as "significant" with more than 400 patients waiting an hour to be handed over whilst the figure for January was just over 300.

The health chief told the board on Tuesday all of their actions were "coming to fruition but still there's a huge amount of work to do" over the ambulance delay rates.

Figures presented to the meeting showed delays over 60 minutes were at their highest in October last year with 571 people waiting, with 365 and 429 the following months.

The report said the longest waiting ambulance on November 10 last year was recorded at six hours and 15 minutes, when the hospital trust saw 112 ambulance arrivals and a total of 389 attendances of the day.

But it added: "It is noted that December 2021 saw a decrease in ambulance numbers when compared with the same period last year, numbers were also lower when compared with two years ago (pre-Covid) for ambulance arrivals."

Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said: "While it is positive to see more NHS staff back at work, pressure on the NHS is still intense, having seen the busiest week for ambulances taking patients to A&E since the start of December – all while pushing to deliver as many routine checks and procedures as possible, including vital diagnostic checks.

"Our staff have already had what feels like a long winter, but despite everything they have had to contend with, they continue to step up as they always do."

The NHS has a target of 15 minutes for ambulance handovers but only delays longer than 30 minutes are recorded. The situation in the region has largely been caused by delays in handing patients over to hospital – whilst the capacity in hospital has in turn been hit by a lack of community care places to discharge healthy patients and free up bed space.

Service bosses from WMAS previously said patients were being put at "catastrophic risk" of harm as a result of handover delays with some dying before help reaches them, a meeting heard.

As a result, the board took the unprecedented step of moving handover delays to "risk rating 25" – the highest possible level of risk. It is the first time any risk has been categorised as "25" in the history of the service.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, the body that represents health trusts in England, said the figures showed hospitals were "operating under sustained pressure," despite a recent fall in Covid-19 cases.

She added: “We know that success in reducing delayed discharges is dependent on having enough staff to facilitate discharges and support patients once they are ready to return home or to other community settings.

"That’s why we are pleased to see that the number of staff absences due to Covid-19 is now decreasing after the Omicron peak, although it’s important to recognise that the total number of staff absences remains high."