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October 13, 2024
A patient being admitted to A&E in Wales had to wait in an ambulance outside hospital for more than six hours, it emerged today.
The patient’s ordeal was revealed in new findings which show that hospitals routinely keep ambulances waiting outside for hours – even though they are not supposed to wait more than 15 minutes.
And the crisis is only set to worsen with the onset of winter, according to experts who have been predicting months of chaos on the wards.
A&E departments across Britain have been affected by squeezed budgets and soaring admissions, partly because the lack of GP services over weekends forces patients to go straight to casualty instead.
Hospitals in England can be fined if they make patients wait in ambulances for more than 30 minutes, with 15 minutes being the recommended maximum.
Paramedics are not allowed to hand patients over to A&E until the hospitals are ready to treat them.
The figures were released to the BBC after it asked all UK ambulance services for their longest waits for each week between August and October.
The longest delay, which saw a patient waiting for six hours and 22 minutes, came in Wales, where every week at least one patient had to wait more than three hours.
In England, the longest a patient had to wait was five hours and 51 minutes, in the East of England ambulance region.
Scotland had a much better record, with no patients having to wait more than two hours throughout the three-month period covered by the data.
Squeeze: The crisis in A&E admissions is only set to get worse with the onset of winter (file photo)
Squeeze: The crisis in A&E admissions is only set to get worse with the onset of winter (file photo)
Dr Clifford Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, said the figures were ‘alarming’.
He told the BBC: ‘There’s always going to be a small number of patients whose transfer is delayed, but not to the extent of these figures – which are approaching three, four, sometimes six hours.
‘And remember, these figures relate to the three months up until October. They don’t include the really pressured time of the winter and so it’s unlikely these figures are going to improve – and that must be a cause for concern.’
Barbara Hakin, deputy chief executive of NHS England, said there were 4,476 delays of more than 30 minutes in handing patients on from ambulances last week, down by nearly 1,000 on the same week in 2012.
But she conceded that ambulance services were under pressure.
She said: ‘NHS England recognises it is essential ambulances are back on the road as soon as possible after taking patients to A&E, though we know it is sometimes in the best interests of patients’ safety that they remain in the ambulance after they have arrived at the hospital.’
Ms Hakin said NHS England has allocated an extra £14million for extra staff and equipment over the winter months.
Source Mail OnlINe