More Cornwall patients waited over an hour in ambulances outside of A&E than anywhere else in the country, new data shows. Two thirds (66 per cent) of arrivals by ambulance at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust had handover delays of over an hour in the week ending January 5, according to the latest government figures.
The county’s only A&E is at Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske, Truro, where queues of dozens of ambulances are regularly seen.
A critical incident was declared in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by NHS bosses on Friday (January 3), following immense pressure on hospitals. Patients were asked to keep away from A&E departments and to only attend in an emergency. This was lifted on Wednesday evening.
Across England, more than one in five patients were stuck in ambulances for over an hour waiting to be admitted to hospital last week at both emergency and non-emergency departments. There were a total of 96,012 arrivals by ambulance at NHS hospitals in England.
One in every five of those, a total of 19,554 patients, had to wait over an hour before being admitted. At Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust the proportion was 62%, while at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust it was 61%.
In all, a total of 11 trusts across the country saw at least half of patients arriving by ambulance take over an hour to be admitted.
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust: 66% Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 62% University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust: 61% Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust: 58% Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust: 58% The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust: 54% Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 54% University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust: 53% Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 52% The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust: 50% Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust: 50%
The average wait time on January 5 was 47 minutes. A total of seven trusts on that day had average handovers of over two hours, however.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust: 2 hours 46 minutes The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust: 2 hours 5 minutes University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust: 2 hours 13 minutes Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust: 2 hours 41 minutes Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 2 hours 32 minutes Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust: 2 hours 13 minutes University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust: 2 hours 55 minutes
Meanwhile, thousands of patients are staying in hospital for longer than is necessary. On Sunday, January 5, a total of 18,390 patients across NHS hospitals in England were deemed well enough to be discharged.
Fewer than a third of those (29.4%), however, were actually sent home. That left 12,983 patients (70.5% of the total) taking up hospital beds unnecessarily.
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