'Significant increase' in ambulance hospital handover delays
There has been a 'significant increase' in ambulances handover delays at hospitals experienced by West Midlands Ambulance Service crews, a new report says.
National guidance states that paramedics should be able to hand patients over to A&E staff within 15 minutes of arriving at hospital.
A new report to the board of directors at WMAS, which meets virtually on Wednesday, says the service's crews lost more than 18,196 hours waiting longer in January, compared to 11,822 in January last year.
It also says that almost 70 per cent of arrival to handover times during January this year were "out of target".
Another report to the board by Mark Docherty, executive director of nursing and clinical commissioning, and Dr Alison Walker, executive medical director, said: "The issue of patient handover delays shows no sign of improvement and the impact of this means we are keeping patients waiting for very long periods for an ambulance response.
"The lost hours for the year to date peaked in October 2021 when there were in excess of 15,000 lost hours due to handover delays over 30 minutes; this is the highest number of lost hours ever experienced by WMAS.
"In February 2022 we experienced the second highest level of lost hours due to handover delays (pro rata taking account February has less days in the month)."
WMAS lost 12,091 hours due to handover delays exceeding 30 minutes last month.
In December, WMAS reported that it had dealt with a sharp increase in the number of 999 calls.
Over the five days from December 24 to 28, the trust took 22,826 emergency calls compared to 19,467 in 2019.
