December worst for ambulance waits in West Midlands, say bosses

West Midlands Ambulance Service said it was looking at new ways to speed up handover delays

December was the worst month for ambulance waiting times in the West Midlands, officials say.

Figures from West Midlands Ambulance Service show delays handing patients over totalled 47,635 hours, up from the previous worst month in July at 43,759.

In Shropshire, two separate patients waited more than 32 hours before they could be admitted to hospital.

The service has said it was working hard to prevent delays, but depended on hospitals admitting patients quickly.

Susan Dorrian, West Midlands chairperson of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said staff were leaving shifts in distress at not being able to give patients the standard of care they aspire to.

"They're not able to deliver the standard of care they would choose to give to those patients," she said.

"It feels like sometimes we're apologising to every single patient that we see throughout a shift, and their relatives and carers, because we simply can't meet people's expectations, or our own expectations at the levels of care we should be offering."

Susan Dorrian said staff were leaving shifts in distress over the levels of care they could offer

Ambulance services around the country are facing major handover delays as winter pressures grow.

In his first major speech of 2023, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to cut NHS waiting lists as more than 7m people are currently waiting for care in England, one-eighth of the population.

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In December, BBC Newsnight found that the number of people in the West Midlands who died after an ambulance delay had risen significantly from one in 2020 to 37 up until September 2022.

Patients and campaigners have repeatedly called for urgent improvements and changes, while a spokesperson for the ambulance service said it had seen "a significant increase" in the number of cases which are classed as serious incidents (SIs).

On 29 December a patient waited 32 hrs 57 minutes to be handed over to A&E at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, the day after another patient waited 32 hrs 15 minutes at the same hospital.

Sara Biffen, acting chief operating officer for the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said all available additional space within the trust was being used.

She said partners were working towards using additional capacity in the community for patients who are ready to be discharged while winter flu and Covid-19 meant added pressure.

"We continue to face extreme pressures and are sorry that some patients are facing longer waits to be admitted onto a ward," she added.

"We continue to prioritise patients with the most urgent clinical needs and are doing everything we can to support patients' dignity and care needs and ensure they are regularly monitored whilst waiting for a ward bed."