THIS photo shows a deserted A&E at Worcester's hospital with no ambulances queuing after a summer of long delays.

The image shows an empty road outside Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester, taken today (Wednesday). 

David Raven, divisional director of Urgent Care and emergency medicine consultant, shared the photo.

It provides a stark contrast to previous photographs which showed ambulances queuing outside A&E.

 

 

Earlier this month Matthew Hopkins, chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, shared a similar photo of the deserted road outside Worcester hospital, suggesting things had improved after a busy spell.

 

At the end of July, 15 ambulances were pictured waiting outside as pressure mounted on Worcestershire Royal Hospital and on ambulance crews trying to transfer patients to the care of the hospital.

Worcester News: QUEUE: Queue shows ambulances at Worcester hospital QUEUE: Queue shows ambulances at Worcester hospital (Image: QUEUE: Queue shows ambulances at Worcester hospital)

Mr Hopkins said on September 2: "Big thanks to our partners the West Midlands Ambulance Service, Worcestershire County Council, NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire for really getting alongside the clinical teams at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in driving improvements in patient safety and experience for the sickest Worcestershire citizens to regularly achieve this picture."

In July we reported how a shocked man filmed lines of queuing ambulances at the city's hospital warning 'the NHS has had it'.

Chalky Martin, from St Johns, Worcester, took a video of about 15 ambulances queuing outside Worcestershire Royal Hospital's Accident and Emergency department.

He said he was at a standstill while he made his way to the main hospital for an appointment and uploaded it to Facebook.

The 54-year-old said: "Look at the state of it, I went to the hospital for an X-ray and that's the most I've seen at one time. I went up there and I was at a standstill, so I thought I'd take a video." 

However, the situation appears to have changed dramatically for the better since that photo was taken.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said there have been "recent improvements" in ambulance waiting times but they continue to "reflect the pressures of last winter".

The West Midlands Ambulance Service was contacted earlier this month to see if they endorsed the view that the situation had improved.

However, they did not provide a response.