The ambulance service has been described as being in 'critical' condition with crews waiting outside hospital to drop patients off for more than day
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Image: Adam Hughes)
The ambulance service is in a “critical” condition as crews get stuck at hospitals for more than a day, risking patients’ lives and causing huge delays in 999 calls.
A poll of ambulance services’ longest delays outside overcrowded A&E departments last month revealed that one West Midlands crew was held for 26 hours in boiling heat on June 6.
In London, also on June 6, a crew had an eight-hour, 23-minute wait.
The North West Ambulance service said their longest handover for the first two weeks of June was 9hrs, 16mins.
The Welsh Ambulance Service had a crew waiting for 26hrs, 58mins.
In the Yorkshire region, the longest hospital handover in recent weeks was on June 7 at Hull Royal Infirmary, where a crew stayed for 9hrs, 36mins.
One ambulance service worker, who did not want to be named, said last month was the “worst June ever”.
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Image:
Alamy Live News.)
He said crews were spending hours in the backs of ambulances or next to their patients in hospitals, unable to leave until they had officially handed over their charges to clinical staff.
It means that when 999 calls come in from the public, fewer ambulances and paramedics are available.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service paramedic Kevin Fairfax, a Unison branch secretary, called the delays in getting to calls “critical” and “horrendous”.
He said: “We’ve...
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