Hospitals told to fix ambulance queue crisis

HOSPITALS in England have been ordered to “eliminate” ambulance queues outside hospitals after two deaths were linked to handover delays.

NHS bosses highlighted the “risk to patient safety” in the letter which tells NHS Trusts to end all handover delays.

Ambulance leaders have described the “highest level of emergency activity in history” and reports from around the country paint a bleak picture of ambulances queuing for hours outside busy hospitals.

An investigation was launched after it was reported that a patient died at Worcestershire Royal Hospital following a five-hour wait in an ambulance at the doors of the emergency department. It has also been reported that a woman died in the back of an ambulance following a handover delay at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridgeshire.

It comes as West Midlands Ambulance Service raised its risk rating for handover delays to its highest possible level for the first time in its history.

The risk rating shows that the local NHS Trust believes that patient harm is “almost certain” due to the handover delays.

Documents from the NHS Trust board show one patient was cared for by ambulance staff for “over 13 hours” and on October 4 average handover times were “hours” instead of minutes. “Unfortunately, there have been several cases where severe patient harm has occurred due to the hospital delay,” the documents state.

The separate letter from NHS England bosses to all acute hospitals states that handover delays represent “unacceptable clinical risk” for both patients waiting in ambulance queues and those in the community whose emergency care is delayed.

“Given current performance and the risk to patient safety, we must however press to identify further solutions to eliminate all handover delays,” it states. It adds that patients should be considered under the “responsibility” of the hospital from the moment the ambulance arrives.

Martin Flaherty, managing director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, said: “The ambulance sector is experiencing some of the highest levels of emergency activity in its history and this is regrettably leading to delays in the sector’s ability to respond to some patients.

“These delays simply must be addressed as a priority in order to minimise harm and allow ambulance services to respond effectively to patients in the community.”