Number of A&E patients waiting in ambulances reaches new high

THE PROPORTION of patients arriving by ambulance at hospitals in England who are waiting at least 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E teams has reached a new high, figures show, with more patients kept waiting by the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust than anywhere else in the country.

Some 21,432 delays of half an hour or longer were recorded across all hospital trusts last week – this was 27 per cent of the 79,548 arrivals by ambulance and the highest percentage since the start of winter.

Figures for ambulance delays are published by NHS England and the current data runs from the start of December 2021.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust reported the highest proportion of handovers delayed by at least 30 minutes last week (74 per cent), followed by Shrewsbury & Telford (72 per cent), University Hospitals Bristol & Weston (72 per cent), and Gloucestershire Hospitals

(71 per cent). Gloucestershire Hospitals topped the list for handovers delayed by more than an hour (58 per cent), followed by Northern Lincolnshire and Goole (55 per cent).

A handover delay does not always mean a patient has waited in the ambulance. They may have been moved into an A&E department but staff were not available to complete the handover.

But the figures are another sign of the pressures hospitals are facing amid the latest rise in coronavirus infections.

Separate data published yesterday showed staff absences at NHS hospitals in England due to Covid-19 are at their highest level since late January, with numbers continuing to climb in most regions.

Absences averaged 28,560 a day last week – the equivalent of three per cent of the workforce – up from 27,571 the previous week, though still below the 45,736 (five per cent of the workforce) reached in early January.

NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: “Today’s figures sum up just how busy NHS staff currently are – alongside increasing numbers of Covid and emergency patients and with 94 per cent of beds now occupied, they are also dealing with the highest number of staff off sick due to the virus for 10 weeks. Our frontline staff are working closely together with social care providers to ensure patients leave hospital as soon as they are fit to do so, and hospitals have increased bed numbers and created extra capacity in line with increasing pressure.”

A total of 16,587 people were in hospital in England with Covid-19 as of April 6, up six per cent week on week and the highest since January 17, NHS England said.

Patient numbers are nearing the peak reached in early January – 17,120 – but remain well below the 34,336 at the peak of the second wave of the virus at the start of 2021.

Today’s figures sum up just how busy NHS staff currently are. NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis.