WORCESTERSHIRE hospitals have made progress in tackling the worst ambulance handover delays in the country.
But health bosses admit they are still having bad days and seeing “some long delays”.
Maximum wait times were introduced in February after West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) crews across the region lost more than 50,000 hours to handover delays in January – more than any other ambulance trust in England.
The aim is that no ambulance should wait longer than 45 minutes to transfer patients into hospitals run by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
IMPROVEMENTS: The trust’s chief operating officer Chris Douglas (Image: Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust)
These are Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester, Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital and Kidderminster Hospital and Treatment Centre.
Chris Douglas, chief operating officer at the acute trust, said: “February was a stepped improvement in terms of some of the emergency and urgent care performance, despite the fact we saw increasing levels of activity.
“We introduced a number of red lines as part of the 45-minute handover programme we’ve launched.
“That’s seen an improvement of 14 per cent in terms of patients being handed over within 45 minutes.
“But it also saw an improvement in the overall emergency access standard for the system to 67.1 per cent, a four per cent improvement.”
He told a meeting of the trust’s board on Tuesday (April 14): “The early figures for March suggest it will be over 70 per cent – the first time since the Covid era, so February was definitely a step-change in terms of some of the work we’ve been doing.
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“That said, we’re still seeing days where we’re particularly challenged around some long delays and challenges with flow, both of our own processes and the support that we are working with partners for patients that need to leave hospital with our support.
“But we’re seeing more and more of that support coming to fruition and I think the approach we’ve taken has really helped to galvanise the support internally and externally around making those improvements for patients, but as I say, not without its challenges.”
Vivek Khashu, director of strategy and engagement at WMAS, previously said the introduction of maximum wait times had successfully reduced handover delays in other parts of the country.
He said WMAS wants to eventually reach the standard handover target time of 15 minutes.