Thousands of ill patients waited over 45 minutes for ambulance transfers

MORE than 9,000 people in the East Midlands waited over 45 minutes to be transferred from an ambulance to A&E last month.

- By LAUREN MONAGHAN Local Democracy Reporter

The shocking figure was revealed at an East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) board meeting on Tuesday.

Pressure on the ambulance service has been growing for the last few months.

The average handover time of 31 minutes and 37 seconds in July rose to 35 minutes and 35 seconds in August and 33 minutes and 39 seconds in September.

Acute hospital trusts in the region have been running a 45-minute ambulance handover scheme since late last year and early this year in a bid to free up ambulance crews to better respond to more emergencies.

It was introduced at the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) in Nottingham in December last year, at Royal Derby Hospital in January and implemented at Grimsby Hospital and Scunthorpe General Hospital in February. It started in Leicester in March.

But thousands of patients have been left waiting in an ambulance outside A&E longer than 45 minutes this year - the figure has jumped by 2,500 in a month.

Speaking at the EMAS meeting, non-executive director John Kelly asked the board: “Do we know the number for the whole of October?”

Ben Holdaway, director of operations, told the board that around 9,000 patients were waiting longer than 45 minutes to be handed over to A&E departments last month.