How can we end ambulance crisis?

Probe launched into deadly risk to A&E patients

A MAJOR investigation has been launched into the risk to patients from being left for hours in ambulances outside A&E departments.

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch is carrying out a nationwide review of the waits desperately ill people face because paramedics cannot get them into overcrowded hospitals.

The watchdog’s intervention comes after so-called ‘handover delays’ reached record levels across the NHS in recent months.

It is due to deliver its interim findings on Wednesday.

Some patients have been left waiting for as long as 24 hours while the knock-on effects mean that dozens have died at home because ambulances were stuck in queues.

And it risks becoming a problem for the Government after Sir Keir Starmer raised it at Prime Minispatients ter’s Questions this week, telling the harrowing story of Bina Patel, 56, who died after waiting almost an hour for an ambulance after suffering cardiac arrest at home.

Last night, Richard Webber, a senior NHS paramedic and spokesman for the College of Paramedics, said the level of delays caused by lengthy handovers was ‘unprecedented’ and was resulting in violence against crews. ‘Paramedics have witnessed

deteriorate, and in rare cases, die in the back of their ambulance,’ he added.

Analysis by the Daily Mail of all ten NHS ambulance trusts across England reveals an alarming picture.

Latest figures from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives show that the average time for a patient handover in April was 36 minutes – more than double the 17 minutes recorded a year

earlier and well above the target of 15. A staggering 11,000 handovers took more than three hours with the longest delay 24 hours.

Reports written for ambulance trust bosses in recent months warn of worse to come.

‘We are doing everything we can but some patients are coming to harm and staff are suffering,’ one director said.

In the East Midlands, managers revealed paramedics

had ‘attended 44 patients who had been alive when the 999 call was made but had died before an ambulance was available to attend.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission heard 999 callers in London ‘being advised that there could be a five or six-hour wait for an ambulance’. The HSIB’s report is expected to make safety recommendations to hospitals and ambulance trusts.