SHOCK figures from the ambulance service have laid bare the delays facing patients being taken to hospital at both the Alex and Worcestershire Royal.
They show that handover delays from ambulances to hospital staff in Hereford and Worcester are now five times worse than they were last April.
The government-set target for handovers is 15 minutes but on just one day – April 14 this year – nearly 1,500 hours were lost in delays as ambulances waited outside hospitals across the region.
The startling figures were revealed by Anthony Marshall, chief executive of West Midlands Ambulance Service, in reply to a letter sent by Redditch MP Rachel Maclean who was acting on behalf of Headless Cross resident Brian Gooden.
Mr Marshall said: “These delays prevent ambulance crews from responding to patients out in the community and, to be very frank about how serious they are, patients are regularly coming to harm as a direct consequence of hospital handover delays.”
On the day in question, April 14, Brian’s poorly wife Linda was rushed first to the Alex and then transferred to Worcestershire Royal where she and her husband waited 11 hours outside A&E before she was admitted. Some days later Linda passed away.
Brian subsequently wrote to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Matthew Hopkins, chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, as well as Mrs Maclean, to demand something be done.
He said: “What an almighty waste, get your acts together, insist that the whole shambles of the transport and the admittance side at hospitals is totally replaced with a new system,” he said.
“This must happen now.”
On receiving Mr Marshall’s reply from the town’s MP he said: “It says it all, the entire system is in a complete mess, and something has to be done.”
Mr Hopkins said: “Demand on our hospital services remains very high with our staff facing unprecedented demand for urgent and emergency care, and staff across Emergency Departments and partner NHS services are working incredibly hard to ensure patients get the help they need, as quickly and safely as possible.
“We expect to have an additional 29 hospital beds available in the coming weeks ahead of the opening of our new urgent and emergency care development at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, this new development will be at the heart of our efforts to put patients first.”
