This was the scene outside the accident unit at Stoke-on-Trent’s main hospital. ‘Twenty-five ambulances’ were outside Royal Stoke University Hospital A&E on Tuesday lunchtime.
It comes as the Royal Stoke remains in the grip of a ‘critical incident’ which was first declared on New Year’s Day. Winter pressures have included flu patients taking up almost 100 beds, A&E queues, and ambulances having to wait too long to hand over patients to the accident unit.
North Staffordshire health campaigner Ian Syme captured the ambulances outside the Royal Stoke.
The North Staffordshire Healthwatch leader said: “This isn’t an ambulance ‘car park’. It is 25 emergency ambulances stuck outside Royal Stoke University Hospital waiting to offload patients.”
West Midlands Ambulance Service has declined to comment on the latest crisis.
But Royal Stoke chief medical officer Dr Matthew Lewis said: “We declared a critical incident on 1 January and remain under extreme pressure. At peak times we can see a large number of ambulances arrive within a short timeframe. We do have processes in place to ensure the safety and experience of patients is prioritised at these times.
“We work closely with West Midlands Ambulance Service to ensure ambulance crews are able to handover patients into the clinical care of teams at Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital as quickly as possible. This allows paramedic crews to get back on the road to respond to 999 calls at the earliest opportunity.
“As well as making changes to the space available in the emergency department, our clinical teams from wards and departments operate Your Next Patient (YNP) which means that if a patient needs admitting to a hospital bed, they could be cared for on a ward in advance of a bed space becoming available. At times of extreme pressure, up to 15 patients can also be cared for in the corridor in the emergency department at Royal Stoke University Hospital. During this time patients are regularly reviewed and receive appropriate levels of care from a paramedic, nurse and senior doctors.
“We will continue work with our NHS partners to ensure people are seen in the right place at the right time, such as walk-in centres, GPs and NHS 111. As always, any patients with a severe illness or life-threatening injury will be treated promptly in our emergency department.”
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