Q&A: Ambulance delays

Ambulances should be able to hand over patients to hospital staff within 15 minutes

When ambulances arrive at A&E, they are supposed to hand over the patient into the care of hospital staff within 15 minutes.

But all 11 ambulance services in England are facing problems with this. Some hospitals are failing to take charge of emergency patients within the deadline in over half of cases.

Many areas are seeing the problem worsen year on year.

How are handover times measured?

What do the results show?

What does this mean for patients?

What can be done about the problem?