One NHS worker told the ECHO they had been waiting outside the hospital with a patient “all day”
A queue of ambulances parked outside Arrowe Park Hospital on Thursday evening(Image: Submitted)
On a freezing Thursday evening, there is a seemingly endless queue of ambulances parked up in a row outside Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside. The images, taken by an ambulance clinician at around 7.30pm last night, January 29, highlight the extent and the impact of the crisis hitting NHS hospitals and services in our region.
Dozens of ambulances are pictured parked outside the hospital as ambulance workers wait to hand patients over to hospital staff, with one NHS worker saying they were stuck outside with a patient “all day”.
The ambulance clinician, who asked not to be named, told the ECHO there were 23 ambulances parked outside Arrowe Park Hospital. They claimed this number included every available ambulance on the Wirral and around six from Liverpool.
The clinician claimed the delays are linked to the hospital not following a new NHS England policy known as Handover 45, which is designed to limit ambulance handover times to a maximum of 45 minutes.
They told the ECHO: “Ambulances are outside because the new NHS England policy called Handover 45 is not being followed. This means the longest an ambulance should wait with a patient at hospital is 45 minutes before leaving to deal with patients in the community.”
The NHS worker claimed there were 23 ambulances waiting outside the hospital(Image: Submitted)
The clinician warned prolonged delays are having a knock-on effect beyond the hospital site, putting patients elsewhere at risk.
They said: “This is putting patients in the community at risk. These patients are classified as the highest risk because they have no clinical interventions or monitoring while waiting for ambulances, so are at high risk of deterioration.”
The clinician continued: “People in the area calling 999 will experience significant delays in an ambulance arriving, despite the best efforts of call operators and dispatchers.
“Crews will only be able to get back out onto the road to deal with those patients waiting when the hospital allows ambulance clinicians to offload patients from the ambulances and into the hospital for definitive care.”
Arrowe Park and other hospitals in our region are creaking under the pressure of what health bosses say may have been the worst flu season the country has ever seen. This comes on top of existing pressure on hospitals.
Latest government figures show there were a total of 2,906 arrivals by ambulance at NHS hospitals in Merseyside in the week ending December 29 – that’s at both emergency and non-emergency departments.
Almost one in every five (19%) of those, a total of 539 patients, had to wait more than an hour before being admitted. Saturday December 28 was the worst day for it, with 145 patients stuck in ambulances for over an hour. Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust had 240 patients with handover delays over an hour during the course of the week.
A Wirral University Teaching Hospital spokesperson said: “Ensuring our patients receive safe care is our top priority.
“As is the case at hospitals across the country, our Emergency Department continues to experience sustained high demand, with attendances significantly higher than expected for this time of year.
“We are working closely with all our health and care partners, including our Ambulance Service, to improve patient flow, support timely discharge, reduce waiting times in the Emergency Department and to release ambulances back into the community to respond to emergencies.
“We would like to thank colleagues across our hospitals who are working exceptionally hard in challenging circumstances to provide the best possible care for all our patients.”