NEARLY half of all patients taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital by ambulance have to wait in the vehicle for up to an hour.

Forty-one per cent of ambulance crews (722 ambulances) at the Royal had to wait from half-an- hour to an hour to discharge their patient.

Hospital bosses in Worcester have blamed pressure on accident and emergency but critics nationally have accused hospitals of "patient-stacking " to meet the four-hour waiting time target once in casualty.

The figures for January were revealed at a meeting of the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust. More than two per cent (40 ambulances) were forced to wait between one and two hours and there were two cases were ambulance crews had to wait more than two hours to discharge their patient.

These "turnaround times" register the time between ambulance arrival at hospital and when crews are ready for the next job.

Derek Laird, locality director for the West Midlands Ambulance Trust, said that there were times when crews were nearly at the Royal but had to turn around and go to the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch because Worcester's accident and emergency could not cope.

He said: "While ambulances are sitting outside they can't respond to other emergencies."

Chief executive Anthony Marsh said the trust was committed to cutting delays. Mike Foster, MP for Worcester, said the figures did not show whether patients were in "desperate need" or were already receiving care from paramedics. He said: "Some people argue that the four-hour waiting time is being used and manipulated by hospital management to keep the ambulances from discharging patients into the hospital until they know they can meet the four hour target. There should not be that number of ambulances kept outside waiting to discharge patients."

Clive Walsh, director of operations at the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We have been experiencing increased emergency pressures this winter but our aim at all times is to turn around ambulances as soon as possible."