AMBULANCE bosses have vowed to keep a close eye on the amount of time crews must spend waiting around at hospitals to get their patients into beds.

The Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Service NHS Trust has started to monitor the number of ambulances that have to wait more than 15 minutes while beds are found for patients.

The Trust has been set strict targets to meet by the Government for 15-minute turnaround times at hospitals.

But last month, 1,648 crews out of a total of 4,246 ambulance journeys had to hang around for more than 15 minutes.

At its worst, in one week, 506 out of 1,107 ambulances were delayed, a figure of 46 per cent.

The Trust has now decided to bring in a "divert" policy for when there is a lot of pressure within the system.

"Crews now phone us as soon as they have waited more than 15 minutes, and the figures are logged," said Steve McGuinness, director of operations at the Trust.

"There are steps which need to be taken to ease the problem, but we're dealing with a significant increase in the number of calls we're receiving and the number of patients we're dealing with."