Shropshire-based ambulances tied up at A&Es

More than 22,000 calls to 999 across the West Midlands region were made over five days

Nearly all Shropshire-based ambulances were left waiting outside the county's two A&E departments on Wednesday, with handover times of up to six hours.

West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) said 23 of its 26 vehicles had waited to transfer patients at one point during the afternoon.

It comes after WMAS reported a rise in the number of 999 calls during the Christmas period compared with 2019.

It said staff were working hard to "get to patients as quickly as possible".

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal hospitals, said it was "acutely aware" of the impact the lengthy delays were having on some patients.

Nigel Lee, the trust's chief operating officer, apologised to patients adding a number of actions had been taken to address delays, with a number of others planned.

The number of 999 calls totalled more than 22,000 for the five days around Christmas, compared to 19,000 in the same period two years ago, WMAS said.

'Regular contact'

Carolyn Howells, from Baschurch, said she had waited hours for an ambulance after her 87-year-old mother had a fall on Wednesday morning.

She said: "I just want to say how utterly hopeless you feel and how distressing it is, not only for my mum who's in dreadful pain, but for me watching somebody lie in a hallway waiting for an ambulance and not knowing when help will arrive."

WMAS apologised for the delay and said she had been taken to hospital in Shrewsbury.

A spokesman said: "The call was initially triaged as a Category 3, the second lowest category of call based on the information provided by the caller."

"As is standard, we now alert patients where there is a chance that there could be a delay responding so that they are fully aware of the situation.

"Staff in our control room were in regular contact with the patient and reassessed her condition.

"We did respond an ambulance 70 minutes earlier, but it was diverted to a higher priority case."