Dozens in Shropshire waiting up to 11 hours today outside hospitals or for ambulances

West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) has said it is at Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) level 4 - which the service considers "extreme pressure" - but said claims it had called a critical incident were incorrect.

On Tuesday afternoon there were 18 ambulances waiting outside Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, with longest delay being almost seven-and-a-half hours. At one stage there were 43 cases of people waiting for an ambulance across Shropshire.

All 10 ambulance trusts in England are on the highest level of alert and under "extreme pressure". A combination of Covid absences among staff, difficulty caused by the hot weather and ongoing delays in handing over patients to A&E has left ambulance trusts struggling to cope.

However, a WMAS spokesman said reports suggested all 10 ambulance trusts, including WMAS, were in a "critical incident" were incorrect, but said the trust was at REAP level 4, which means the trust highest level of alert

"We are at REAP level 4, but that is not a critical incident. Equally, we have not called a critical incident, though some ambulance trusts have," the spokesman said.

"We do currently have 18 ambulances outside the two hospitals - 13 at RSH and 5 at PRH. "The longest delay at RSH is currently 7hrs 26mins.

"There are 43 cases outstanding, the longest of which is 11 hours."

The service's nursing director Mark Doherty recently pinpointed August 17 as the "Titanic moment", when ambulances won't be able to pick up patients.

WMAS chief executive Anthony Marsh told Shropshire ambulance campaigner Darren Childs: "The situation in the county remains very serious."

Mr Childs said: "There are no crews available anywhere across the region to respond to these waiting cases. Action is needed now. We are going over the cliff edge in Shropshire.

"We've been working towards the 'doomsday' date of August 17, but it's coming quicker than we thought."

Meanwhile, the chief executive of an acute trust in the Midlands region told HSJ: “We had a very very challenged night for handovers last night, possibly the worst ever and it is only July.”