Patients waiting for ambulances surge outside London hospitals as pressure mounts on NHS

More than one in seven (16.2%) patients arriving by ambulance waited more than 60 minutes before being handed over to hospital staff in the week to 18 December, according to the latest NHS England statistics. . Moon.

Nearly a third (32.8%) of ambulances were waiting more than 30 minutes to hand over a patient during the same period, up 3% from the previous week.

The goal is to complete the handover within 15 minutes. Paramedics warn that delays in handing over are leading to patient deaths.

hospital Many hospital beds are occupied by patients in need of adult social care who have nowhere else to go, and are struggling to discharge patients and free up A&E capacity.

Delayed handovers in London resulted in the loss of a total of 3,269 ambulance hours and delays in responding to emergency calls in the week ending 18 December.

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) does not currently publish response times as it says the introduction of a computer-assisted dispatch system has made the data “unreliable”.

But figures leaked to the Health Service Journal earlier this month showed Londoners waiting an average of just under two hours for an ambulance after receiving a Category 2 call involving stroke or chest pain. Aim for around 18 minutes.

This data does not reflect the disruption caused by the paramedics strike on December 21st. A nurse working in emergency medicine did not participate in the strike action that affected his four trusts in London on 15 December.

Delivery delays have been particularly acute at Barts Health NHS Trust, the capital’s largest. On December 14, figures showed that more than 4 out of 10 ambulances faced a wait of more than 30 minutes for him.

At Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, more than half (51%) of ambulances faced waits of 30 minutes or more on 18th December.

Barts last week urged expectant mothers about to give birth to go to the hospital on their own ahead of the emergency workers’ strike. He came after stating that he was unlikely to call an ambulance during a strike.

Ambulance workers on strike cited delayed deliveries and salaries as one of the main reasons for the industrial action, saying it was evidence that the system was collapsing under pressure.

Dr John Martin, LAS’s chief paramedic, said last week that paramedics in London are spending entire shifts tending to patients awaiting discharge to A&E.

“Delayed hospital handover is the most important issue for members…they can spend an entire shift outside the hospital waiting to hand over a patient. It will have a big impact,” he told the Health and Social Services Commission.

“We pride ourselves on having a good emergency medical education.

The Southwestern Ambulance Service on Thursday declared a serious incident due to “extreme pressure.”

As of 11:30 am on Wednesday, 482 patients were awaiting ambulance in the southwest and 106 patients were awaiting extradition at hospitals in the area.

The incident follows the same declaration by Northeast Ambulance Services on Tuesday due to “unprecedented” pressure after the holidays.

Critical incident status means that the Ambulance Trust is unable to provide normal critical services and the patient may face harm.

The NHS provider’s interim chief executive, Saffron Cordery, has urged the government to speak to the union “as soon as possible” to avoid further strikes that would put pressure on the NHS.

She said: “With delays in ambulance deliveries up by a third in the last week, the trust’s leaders have been very critical as the strike’s actions threaten to exacerbate an already severely difficult situation. I’m worried.”

on the other hand, The Standard revealed last week that more than 1 million Londoners were on a waiting list for treatment at the end of October.

More than 30,000 had waited 52 weeks or longer for treatment, and 2,025 had waited 78 weeks or longer. However, figures show improvement in some areas, with nearly two-thirds (64.6%) of patients seen within his 18 weeks, an increase of 0.8% for him from the previous month.

An NHS spokesperson in London said:

“But we have more beds than ever before, additional 111 call handlers, expanded use of 24/7 control centers across the capital for emergencies and emergencies, and additional respirators. In the hub, we’ve been gearing up for winter like never before, but flu hospitalizations and Covid cases continue, the best thing you can do to protect yourself and others is get vaccinated if you’re eligible is to receive