Councillors 'losing patience' over ambulance times

Ambulances were queueing outside Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in December

Councillors have "lost patience" with delays in ambulance response times in rural parts of Gloucestershire, a council meeting heard.

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust says it lost 2,655 hours to handover delays at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Cheltenham General Hospital in December, partly caused by a spike in flu cases.

Councillor Paul Hodgkinson, who represents a ward in the Cotswolds, called the figures "shocking", adding: "Everyone in my community sits there worrying about 'what would happen if I really needed an ambulance'."

NHS Gloucestershire integrated care board chief executive Mary Hutton told the meeting she did not recognise the situation was "not improving at all".

She added the organisation was taking a "whole system" approach to manage flow of patients in the system.

The handover delays in December meant the remaining ambulance hours on the road to respond to patients were severely cut, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Health bosses say ambulance handover delays have improved

According to a Gloucestershire County Council report, response times for category one incidents - cases involving a life-threatening injury or illness - are about seven minutes while in the Cotswolds and Forest of Dean it is 19 and 18 minutes respectively.

In the council meeting on Tuesday, Hodgkinson praised the "amazing" work of paramedics and hospital staff and recognised they were under "immense" pressure.

But he said he had "lost patience" with health bosses due to the recurring ambulance delays.

22-minute response time

"Northleach has the worst category one response time in the whole of Gloucestershire, 22 minutes," he said.

"It's meant to be eight minutes. Here we are back again and it's worse. Despite everything you've said over the years.

"I have to go back to my community and tell them Northleach is the worst in Gloucestershire. It's three times the target.

"I've raised this so many times and it doesn't get better."

Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee [HOSC] chairman, Andrew Gravells, said there was a "stark difference" between the rural parts of the county and urban, such as the ward he represents in Gloucester.

"We don't seem to be closing that at all," he said.

"We seem to address this issue every time we have a HOSC [Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee] meeting."

Ms Hutton said: "We still have some work to do to maximise the handover from hospitals," she said.

"We recognise there are a lot of people involved in getting this improved."

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Kevin McNamara told the meeting ambulance handover delays had improved.

"The average has gotten better but there are some high spikes of activity," he said.

"The flu season was significantly worse.

"We recognise, as a whole system, ambulance handover delays is one measure of how the system is working. We also have long waits within the hospital."