30-minute Shropshire ambulance A&E waits are three times national average

The latest figures published by NHS England, for the week ending January 30, show that 59 per cent of the 718 patients arriving by ambulance at A&E had to wait more than 30 minutes to be handed over to hospital staff.

The national figure is just 20 per cent. Figures show that two years ago, just before lockdown, just 15 per cent of the 818 patients had to wait more than 30 minutes.

Of the 11,183 total patients who attended A&E in December at either the Royal Shrewsbury or Princess Royal Hospitals, almost half, 42 per cent, had to wait more than four hours to be seen compared to 40 per cent two years ago. The national figure is 27 per cent.

The number who had to wait more than five hours to be admitted to a bed was more than double the national average, 78 per cent of the 2,797 patients, compared to 32 per cent across the UK. In January 2020 the figure was 76 per cent.

Nigel Lee, Chief Operating Officer at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: "We are acutely aware of the ongoing impacts the lengthy delays in ambulance handover times are having for some of our patients and would like to apologise to those affected. Both within our hospitals, and alongside the wider local health and care system, we have already taken a number of actions to look to address these, with a number of others in train and planned."

He said that demand for urgent care was at unprecedented levels and that bed capacity within the hospitals was extremely stretched.

The space inside the hospitals was segregated to provide separate Covid-19 assessment spaces in A&E and Covid-19 wards, reducing flexibility between and within both sites.

"Our ability to discharge patients who are fit to leave our hospitals is severely impacted by constraints in local social and home care capacity, this ripples back through to the space available in the emergency departments for new admissions and is therefore a major contributor to the current delays we are seeing with ambulance handover times," Mr Lee added.

Construction of a new modular ward to add additional capacity at the Royal Shrewsbury site should see 32 additional beds by spring 2022.

Also expected to finish in spring 2022 is a £9.3m upgrade of the emergency department at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.