Handover delays 'particularly impact' Shropshire say ambulance bosses
Ambulance bosses say they will continue to look at ways to reduce waiting delays across Shropshire, as new figures show thousands of hours were lost.
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Data released by the West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) show that in June 2024, 2,499 hours were lost in the county, an increase of 39.9 per cent compared to June 2023.
This has had an impact on crews getting to category one (the most severe) incidents. WMAS has a target of getting to 90 per cent of these type of calls within 15 minutes, with its ‘mean’ target being seven minutes.
However, six of the longest waiting times for category one calls in the West Midlands during June were in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, with the worst being 51 minutes and 13 seconds for a medical incident.
Overall, crews managed to get to 90 per cent of category one calls in the region within 23 minutes and 43 seconds in June, which is slightly worse than the same period last year. However, WMAS’ performance for category two and three responses were much better, reaching 90 per cent of the former in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin in 62 minutes and 28 seconds, compared to 82 minutes and 42 seconds last year.
A WMAS spokesman said: “There is a direct correlation between hospital handover delays and our ability to get to patients in the community quickly. If ambulances are delayed handling their patient, they are unable to respond to the next call, which will impact on the care of the patient in the community.
“Hospital handover delays particularly impact rural areas as the ambulances that should be circulating in those areas are stuck at hospital. In practical terms it means that ambulances will often have to travel much further to get to incidents in rural areas which inevitably means response times will be much longer than anyone would want.
“A huge amount of work has taken place in Shropshire to find ways of reducing hospital handover delays. Delays are a whole system issue including all of health and social care and not just the ambulance service and emergency departments.
“We will continue to work with our partners to find ways of reducing the delays further so that our ambulances can get to patients in the community more quickly than they currently do.”
