THE number of patients in ambulances who waited at least an hour to be handed over to an "exceptionally busy" A&E at Bradford Royal Infirmary has nearly tripled in a week, new figures show.

NHS England figures show 60 (eight per cent) patients waited in an ambulance for at least one hour when they arrived at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust A&E in the week to Sunday (December 18) – up from 22 (three per cent) the week before.

Another 64 patients were forced to wait from 30 minutes to an hour, meaning 17 per cent of the 713 total ambulance arrivals were delayed by half an hour or more.

At Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, figures show six (two per cent) patients waited in an ambulance at Airedale A&E for at least one hour – up from one the week before.

Thirty patients were forced to wait 30 minutes to an hour, meaning 11 per cent of the 324 total ambulance arrivals were delayed by half an hour or more.

NHS targets state trusts should complete 95 per cent of all ambulance handovers in 30 minutes, with all conducted in less than one hour.

A statement on behalf of both Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said: "Our A&E teams work extremely hard to minimise ambulance handover delays.

"While we try our hardest to ensure prompt handovers, there are unprecedented numbers of acutely unwell people arriving at our emergency departments, and this can very occasionally cause handover delays.

"Safe and appropriate discharge of patients from hospital is also key to ambulance handover and we are working closely with our partners to facilitate this.

"While our emergency departments remain exceptionally busy we remind people that if you need medical help or advice, please go to 111.nhs.uk unless it is a life-threatening emergency when you should still call 999."

More than 16,300 handover delays an hour or longer were recorded across all hospital trusts last week – up 31 per cent from 12,500 the week before.

It meant 46,000 hours was lost to delays in handing patients over, a significant rise from 29,000 hours recorded a week prior.

The Royal College of Nursing's director for England Patricia Marquis said there was a serious lack of bed capacity in the NHS.

Ambulance staff walked out on Tuesday, December 21, but postponed strike action on Tuesday.

Further strike action by staff at five ambulance services on January 11 and January 23 was also announced this week.

Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive at NHS Providers, said: "With ambulance handover delays having increased by a third in the last week, trust leaders are extremely worried as strike action threatens to aggravate an already deeply challenging situation," she added.

 

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