Patient died while waiting in ambulance queue outside the city’s A&E
INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED INTO THE HARM CAUSED BY DELAYS
A patient died after spending hours in a queue of ambulances outside the accident and emergency department at Leicester Royal Infirmary.
The casualty is said to have shown no abnormality while waiting in the ambulance, but unexpectedly had a sudden cardiac arrest while waiting to be handed over to clinical staff.
The death in April has been brought to light from a Freedom of Information request submitted by Zuffar Haq, a long-time health campaigner and Liberal Democrat. Mr Haq asked for information on the number of patients who had died in an ambulance outside A&E between May 2019 and May this year.
The BBC has reported the patient was left waiting for more than two hours. The target handover time at emergency departments is supposed to be 15 minutes.
Richard Mitchell, Leicester’s Hospitals’ chief executive, said: “Our thoughts are with the family of the patient at this difficult time.
“Patients in hospital and on ambulances are regularly assessed to ensure any deterioration is captured as quickly as possible so the right medical interventions can be put in place.
“If an unexpected death occurs, this is reviewed for assurances around safety and processes. These processes help to keep patients safe.”
When patients are left waiting in ambulances, they are usually regularly observed and any concerns are reported to the emergency department team. However, patient hand-overs from East Midlands Ambulance Service (Emas) to hospitals in the region continue to be a “main operational challenge”, according to a report by Emas chief executive, Richard Henderson.
In April, Emas lost a total of 16,500 resource hours because crews were delayed waiting to hand patients over to hospitals in the region.
Across Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, more than 1,500 ambulances were delayed for more than four hours this year, up to May 31.
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has launched an investigation into the harm caused by patient handover delays to address the problem on a national level.
Martin Flaherty, managing director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, said: “The ambulance sector welcomes any proactive initiatives that will accelerate progress in the immediate reduction - and eventual eradication - of hospital handover delays.
“As we have consistently pointed out in recent months, we now know that patients are coming to additional harm when our ambulance crews are unable to transfer them into the care of hospital staff at emergency departments.
“Being treated in the back of an ambulance outside a hospital is not a safe or viable solution for any patient, while the negative effect on the morale and wellbeing of our ambulance crews is significant.
“Additionally, while those ambulances and crews are tied up at hospitals, they are unable to respond to other callers who may need lifesaving, urgent treatment.
“In some regions, ambulance services are routinely losing a third of the hours they have available to treat patients, purely because of hospital handover delays, an unprecedented and unsustainable situation.
“This is why we agree with HSIB that there needs to be immediate action involving a whole system approach with the emphasis firmly on patient safety.
“We back the call for the Department of Health and Social Care to action an immediate strategic national response to address patient safety issues across health and social care arising from flow through and out of hospitals to the right place of care.
“We also back the HSIB call for a longer-term integrated review of the health and social care system to address these issues.
“Our message is clear; there is no time to waste in finding solutions to unnecessary hospital handover delays. Each day that goes by results in more patients being harmed while stuck outside hospitals or waiting for our crews in the community, and that is wholly unacceptable.”