Nine patients stuck on trolleys for more than 12 hours in Shropshire hospitals
Nine patients were left waiting on trolleys for more than 12 hours at Shropshire's A&E departments in December, new figures show.
Ambulances were also waiting more than an hour to hand over patients on 100 occasions during the same month, according a report to Shropshire's clinical commissioning group.
Figures in the report show there were also handover delays of more than 30 minutes on 510 occasions at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal Hospital.
The accident and emergency departments have been facing high demand, and figures from NHS England show that just 69.3 per cent of patients were seen within the four-hour government waiting target in December.
A report to the CCG, which meets on Wednesday, says: "As are many acute providers, the trust has experienced increasing pressure in its emergency departments.
"In December, 12-hour trolley wait breaches were reported.
"The CCG has now received and reviewed the breach root cause analysis reports for these.
"In all cases there was no harm to patients identified, however assurance is being sought as to how further breaches can be avoided."
A report which was put before Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust's board on Thursday said that when the emergency departments are particularly busy patients can be asked to wait on trolleys in the corridor rather than in cubicles.
The report by Dee Radford, associate director of patient safety, said: "To ensure we are doing all we can to keep patients safe we undertake a clinical risk assessment on each patient waiting in emergency department for longer than four hours, this includes vital signs, comfort, risk of pressure areas and ensuing patients have a their nutrition and hydration needs met.
"Whilst we recognise that it is not ideal for patients to be situated in emergency department corridors we continue to maintain their needs, privacy and dignity and safety. We undertake audit to ensure that this is in place."
More than 8,000 patients were seen in the A&E departments at PRH and RSH in December.
SaTH has struggled to recruit doctors for its A&E departments and, after a consultant recently resigned, now faces a decision about whether to bring in a temporary overnight closure of the emergency department at PRH.
Hospital bosses can activate a contingency plan which would see the emergency department at PRH close between the hours of 8pm to 8am for up to two weeks.
Bosses say they are doing all they can to avoid taking this measure.
