Study suggests ambulances forced to queue daily outside A&E departments

A new survey suggests ambulances are having to queue outside the majority of emergency departments before they are able to unload patients.

 

Under current NHS guidance, ambulance handovers should be completed within 15 minutes.  However, around two-thirds of A&E departments surveyed by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine indicated they were struggling to meet the target every day.

 

The Department of Health said additional funding is being provided to increase staff numbers in key areas.

 

Dr Katherine Henderson, president of the RCEM, said “We are facing a crisis in urgent care and a crisis of patient safety.”

 

A&E departments across the UK were surveyed between 8^th and 14^th November, the results of which showed that 94 per cent of clinical directors said that ambulances had been held outside their buildings at some point before patients could be taken into the hospital; 61 per cent said ambulances were being forced to queue every day; and around 50 per cent said care had been provided to patients in non-medical areas, such as corridors, every day.

 

Dr Henderson went on to say “These results show the serious state that our urgent and emergency care system is in.

 

“None of us want to have patients held in ambulances, treated in corridors, or waiting very long times to go up to a ward bed.”

 

A spokesperson for the Department of Health in England said “Ambulance Trusts have been given an extra £55m to boost staff numbers in control rooms and on the front line.

 

“This is on top of our record investment this year, including £5.4bn over the next six months to tackle this backlog, as well as £36bn for health and care over the next three years.”

 

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in medical negligence claims, providing support and guidance after life-changing events.  Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

 

If you believe that you or a relative may have been injured as a result of clinical/medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our medical negligence solicitors on the freephone number below.

 

Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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