Ambulance targets missed - as one patient waits 11 hours

One patient was left waiting more than 11-and-a-half hours for an ambulance to show up.

The ambulance service says lengthy handover times at hospitals are having a direct impact on its ability to get to patients quickly.

The average response time for a Category 2 emergency call in Worcestershire is 37 minutes and 38 seconds - more than twice the 18-minute NHS target.

Queues at hospitals have a direct impact on ambulance response times, says WMAS

That’s according to data obtained by the Liberal Democrats via Freedom of Information requests to all 10 ambulance trusts in England.

Data from West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) also shows a failure to meet the target for Category 1 calls, which are people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries and should be responded to within seven minutes.

The figures show an average response time for the Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICS area of 10 minutes and 36 seconds.

One Category 1 patient had to wait an hour and 27 minutes while the longest wait endured by a Category 2 patient was 11 hours and 35 minutes.

A WMAS spokeswoman said: “We rely on each part of the health and social care system working together so that our ambulances can get to patients in the community quickly.

“If our crews are left caring for patients outside hospital, they are not available to respond to the next call as quickly as we would all want.

WMAS sent us these figures, which show how response times are affected by delays at hospitals (Image: WMAS)

“There is a direct correlation between hospital handover delays and our ability to get to patients in the community quickly. Disappointingly, due to handover delays, our performance is not where we would want it to be.

“Unfortunately, these delays impact the care we are able to provide to patients, but it also affects our staff who often miss mealbreaks and regularly finish late which can have a significant bearing on their home life.

“We saw an improvement in hospital handover delays in February and March which, at the same time, led to a significant response in our category 2 performance.”

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WMAS said it has the fastest call answering in the country and continues to work with all of its NHS and social care partners to look at new ways to improve response times.

Lib Dem health spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said: “Under the Conservative Party the health service has faced unforgivable neglect and it is patients who are bearing the brunt.

“We urgently need investment in our ambulance services. For too long staff have not been given the resources they need and patients have been left to suffer unnecessarily.”