An NHS boss has apologised after the equivalent of 30 paramedic shifts per week were wasted in the run-up to Christmas and New Year, due to delays at two east London hospitals.
NHS England said 2,527 hours were “lost to ambulance handover delays” in seven weeks at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT).
That is roughly 360 hours per week – or 30 paramedic shifts of 12 hours each.
READ MORE:
The trust, which runs Queen’s Hospital in Romford and King George Hospital in Goodmayes, lost more hours to handover delays than any other in London.
Romford MP Andrew Rosindell has written to Steve Barclay, secretary of state for health, to express “immense concern”, calling it “a serious issue which is having a dramatic effect on my constituents”.
“I have received numerous complaints from residents in Romford confirming that this data is a reflection of their own experiences,” he wrote.
Dagenham and Rainham’s Labour MP Jon Cruddas said he too had received reports of “horrendous waits”.
He was due to meet with NHS representatives on Wednesday, January 11, to raise concerns.
Matthew Trainer, chief executive of the trust, said: “I’m sorry people are waiting too long. All patients are assessed by a senior clinician when they arrive and they’re not left outside waiting in ambulances.”
Worst in London
It is the second year in a row that BHRUT has experienced bad delays ahead of the festive period.
Days before Christmas 2021, a leaked London Ambulance Service operational note described Queen’s as “the most challenged” hospital in north east London for ambulance handover delays.
Between November 14, 2022, and January 1, 2023, an average of 52 hours were lost per day.
On January 5, Mr Trainer told a board meeting that a “significant increase” in older patients with Covid and flu had led to people being treated in “distressing environments”.
“We’ve had patients cared for in corridors that we’ve never seen before on our site or at other sites,” he said.
“It’s not good for them and not how we’d want our family to be treated.”
What is causing this?
“The number of people that come through the emergency department is about three times what it was built for,” said Mr Trainer.
“We’ve got a growing population,” he said. “I think our trust as a whole is something like the 12th busiest in the country for A&E... And we’re also usually in the top two or three in London for the number of ambulances.”
He told the January 5 board meeting that demand was worsened by the size of the medical workforce, a lack of social care beds and patients struggling to access GPs.
READ MORE:
On top of these issues, a London NHS spokesperson said hospitals are currently “experiencing record demand for urgent and emergency care”, fuelled by large numbers of people being admitted with respiratory illnesses.
Across London, 18,537 hours were lost to ambulance handover delays in seven weeks.
What is being done?
“We have however prepared for winter like never before,” an NHS London spokesperson said, citing “more beds, extra 111 and 999 call handlers, expanding the use of 24/7 control centres across the capital... and additional respiratory hubs”.
“But with flu hospitalisations and Covid cases remaining high, the best thing you can do to protect yourself and others is to get vaccinated if you’re eligible,” they added.
At BHRUT, said Mr Trainer, “we’re moving patients out of A&E more quickly; we’re treating and sending people home on the day they arrived so they don’t need to be admitted; and we’ve set up a unit to care for those needing surgery who arrive in our emergency departments.”
A plan dubbed “Project Snowball” - to move patients out of A&E more quickly – has seen a 21 per cent increase in patients being sent to the frailty unit and seen 47 minutes shaved off of the average wait between arrival and treatment for ambulance patients.
The London Ambulance Service said: “From Thursday 12 January, NHS England have asked London hospitals to support the timely handover of patient care and the release of our crews within a maximum of 45 minutes where it is safe and appropriate to do so.
"It is important to note that hospitals assume clinical responsibility for the patient 15 minutes from the arrival of an ambulance.
"With support from the five Integrated Care Systems in the capital and all London hospital trusts, this ground-breaking policy is the first of its kind and will allow patients in an emergency to receive the care they need sooner.”
Additional reporting by Josh Mellor of Local Democracy Reporting Service and Ben Lynch.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here