Woman distraught over elderly mum’s wait in ambulance says ‘Staff all do their best, but the system is at breaking point’
DERBY woman is distraught after her elderly mother was left waiting in an ambulance at Royal Derby Hospital for more than two hours due to the widespread healthcare backlog.
This comes at a time that East Midlands Ambulance Service says it is losing thousands of hours each month waiting at hospitals, unable to respond to incidents.
It says the risks are significant and that in April, the amount of hours lost due to hospital transfer delays were the equivalent of shutting down its entire Northamptonshire operation for a month.
Ambulance-to-hospital transfer delays are a core symptom of the widespread pressure on Derbyshire’s healthcare system – and one of the most noticeable by the general public.
It involves each part of the system and relates to high attendance in A&E, longer hospital stays and delays to discharge patients from hospital into social care such as care homes. Much of this relates to Covid-19 and the after-effects of the pandemic and associated lockdowns.
Alison Martin told how her 84-year-old mother, Ann Wragg, was taken by ambulance to Royal Derby Hospital on Friday, June 17. A call was placed to the NHS 111 nonemergency number because Mrs Wragg had tested positive for Covid19, had a “very high” heart rate and a suspected chest infection.
This was then passed on to EMAS, which sent an ambulance immediately. However, Mrs Wragg was then left waiting in the ambulance for two-and-a-half hours, and told at the time that this was due to an exceptionally busy Royal Derby A&E department.
The official target to transfer a patient from an ambulance into a hospital is 15 minutes from arrival, with a separate target to depart the hospital and be back available for duty within a further 15 minutes. This makes the 2.5-hour wait 10 times the target time for admission.
Ms Martin said there were four other ambulances waiting outside A&E at the time and says she was told by staff that they could not say how long the wait would be, due to the level of activity in the emergency department.
She says the ambulance staff were excellent and very attentive, caring and patient but claims that, while she was waiting, ambulance staff told her “they can spend 10 hours of a 12-hour shift with a patient waiting to be transferred into A&E”.
She said she was told sometimes staff start a shift and their first job is to relieve other ambulance staff stuck in an ambulance with a patient waiting for a transfer.
She says her mother arrived at A&E in the early evening of June 17 and seen by a doctor early the following morning. She said: “All the nurses and doctors were brilliant, when they were able to help her.”
Ms Martin, who is also chairman of the Derby City Council adults and health scrutiny board, said: “The situation with A&E and ambulance transfers is very serious and it seems to be at breaking point.
“Paramedics decided my mum needed urgent treatment, but then she was stuck waiting in an ambuA lance for several hours – I know many other patients have been obliged to wait much longer. The ambulance staff were so caring and patient, but I was worried because I couldn’t see when or how my mum would actually get to see a doctor.
“Meanwhile, people can wait at home for an ambulance to arrive for hours because none are available to be dispatched to them. The system needs sorting, urgently. The staff all do their best, but the system is at breaking point and it’s not good enough.”