Ambulance handover struggles continue as RSH/PRH rank bottom

Figures show that 69 patients spent more than eight hours in ambulances waiting to be admitted to Shropshire’s acute hospitals last December.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) remained under huge pressure last month but officials say they are seeing signs of improvement.

Figures given to a recent meeting of commissioners recorded that SaTH reviewed the cases of 52 patients, whose average age was 79. They included 23 people who had fallen of whom 13 were admitted, including “readmission for multiple falls”.

The meeting last week was told that average ambulance handover time is an “area of high concern for December, with Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin position being over one hour more than the national average and ranked bottom of all 121 reporting areas”.

Ned Hobbs, SaTH’s chief operating officer, said: “We are very sorry that some of our patients have experienced longer waiting times to receive handover from the ambulance service to our emergency departments, and longer waiting times to be admitted to our hospitals than we would want.

“We can see signs of improvement – the proportion of our patients admitted, discharged or transferred from the emergency department within 12 hours in December was our best December since the Covid-19 pandemic and the number experiencing long ambulance handover delays is now reducing, but we recognise there is much more we need to do to ensure every patient experiences timely access to urgent and emergency care.

“We are taking a number of steps to improve the flow through our hospitals including an additional 56 inpatient beds at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and an additional 40 acute assessment spaces at Princess Royal Hospital.”

“In the meantime, our hardworking colleagues are doing all they can to support patients’ care and dignity, and ensure they are as comfortable as possible whilst they wait.”

December figures reported to a meeting of commissioners at NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin also showed that the average ambulance handover time at SaTH was 1 hour and 35 minutes. This is 16 minutes and 52 seconds worse than the target.

Figures also show that 53.1 per cent of patients were waiting four hours in emergency departments, some 2.4 per cent worse than the target.

Some 21.7 per cent of waits in A&E were for 12 hours, which is 0.1 per cent worse than the target.

The commissioners’ meeting in Stafford last week was also told that SaTH has committed to a maximum ambulance handover threshold with NHS England and West Midlands Ambulance Service of four hours in January and three hours in February.

Simon Whitehouse, the commissioning group’s chief executive, told last week’s meeting that the health and social care system continues to work hard to mitigate winter pressures.

Unlike in other parts of the region, hospitals in Shropshire have avoided having to declare critical incidents this year.