A HOSPITAL is under 'extraordinary' pressure with emergency patients facing long waits as ambulances continue to queue outside A&E.
High pressure on beds at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester and in social care continues to result in queues of ambulances outside A&E.
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In these situations, paramedics have to care for the patient, cannot transfer patients to the care of the hospital and cannot respond to other 999 calls, delaying their arrival at other emergencies.
However, leaders at the hospital and the ambulance service say staff are continuing to work hard to treat patients safely and reduce these 'handover delays'.
Patients were still facing a wait of 13 hours and 45 minutes at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester today (Wednesday) with 16 patients waiting at 11am.
Staff have been described by the chief executive of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust as working 'incredibly hard' while pressure continues on the emergency department.
Other hospitals also faced long waits - seven Hours, 29 Minutes (21 patients waiting) at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.
The wait today at Worcester was down from yesterday (Tuesday) when it reached 17 hours with queues of ambulances parked outside A&E.
Patients are supposed to be seen within four hours of attending A&E but when pressure increases this is not always possible.
The clock starts from the time that the patient arrives in A&E and it stops when the patient leaves the department on admission, transfer from the hospital or discharge.
Paul Brennan, Deputy Chief Executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Our staff continue to face extraordinary demand for urgent and emergency care. Our colleagues are working incredibly hard alongside partner NHS services to ensure patients get the help they need, as quickly and safely as possible.
“We continue to work closely with West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) colleagues and our partners in the local health and care system to explore all possible ways of safely reducing waiting times and improving ambulance handover delays, which remain our number one quality and safety improvement priority.
“We would urge the public to contact NHS 111, either online or by calling 111 to receive free urgent care advice before attending our Emergency Departments, and to only use 999 in a life-threatening emergency.
“Please also remember you can seek help from a local Minor Injury Unit (MIU) for a variety of injuries including wounds, sprains, strains and minor burns with much shorter waiting times.”
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: “The ambulance service relies on each part of the health and social care system working together so that our ambulances can get to patients in the community quickly.
"Sadly, the pressures we are seeing in health and social care lead to long hospital handover delays with our crews left caring for patients that need admitting to hospital rather than responding to the next call. The result is that our crews are delayed reaching patients.
“We are working incredibly hard with all of our NHS and social care partners to prevent these delays, looking at new ways to safely hand over patients quickly so that our crews can respond more rapidly and save more lives.”
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