Shropshire Star

More than 600 delays for ambulances left waiting 30 minutes at hospitals in Shropshire

Ambulance staff were delayed longer than 30 minutes during handovers at the county's two main hospitals more than 600 times in one month, according to new figures

Published

Staff were delayed for more than 30 minutes on 668 occasions at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal and for more than one hour on 159 occasions in November.

The statistics were published in the board papers for Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which is due to meet on Wednesday.

National targets state that patient handovers should be completed within 15 minutes of arrival at a hospital and the vehicle is ready to respond to the next call 15 minutes after.

The report says: "As at November 2016, there were 668 handover delays for more than 30 minutes and 159 for more than one hour.

"Although the 30 minutes figure has improved over the previous month, performance for both indicators continues to deteriorate.

"This is a direct result of the pressures in both emergency departments.

"Due to the depth of knowledge uncovered on ambulance conveyances by the initial CCG audit at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital the system chief operating officers agreed to repeat it on a different day and also at Princess Royal Hospital during January to get a more detailed and consistent view across both sites.

"This is to be reported back to chief operating officers by the end of the month. Key findings of these audits and the resulting actions taken will be included in the February report."

Claire Brown, press officer for West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) NHS Foundation Trust, said: "WMAS can confirm that in November there were 159 occasions when ambulances were delayed over an hour at Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospitals.

"Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust accounts for 27 per cent of hospital delays we experience in the West Midlands region, which has a knock-on effect on our ability to respond to 999 calls in a timely manner.

"We continue to work closely with the acute trust to improve their handover times.

"Ambulance crews convey patients to hospital at their own discretion when deemed clinically appropriate or when a GP has specifically asked for a patient to be taken to A&E."

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