This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Ambulance patients face long A&E delays, figures show
Data obtained by the Labour party has highlighted that thousands of patients who are taken to hospital by ambulance face long delays before being seen by accident and emergency (A&E) staff.
The figures showed the number of patients waiting more than an hour has trebled in two years.
Ambulances are expected to be able to hand over patients to A&E staff within 15 minutes of arrival.
However data for NHS England has shown there were 76,000 waits over an hour in 2015-16, up from 28,000 in 2013-14.
The number of waits of more than 30 minutes rose by 60 per cent over the same period, from 258,000 to nearly 413,000.
Ambulance crews have explained that delays happened when there were no A&E staff available for the ambulance crews to hand patients over to. The most life threatening cases would be prioritised.
The ambulance crews are then forced to wait with their patients, meaning the emergency vehicle is unavailable for 999 calls.
Christina McAnea, of Unison, which represents ambulance staff, said the delays were happening because A&E units were simply ‘overwhelmed’.
"There's a national crisis in the ambulance service because of an extreme lack of funding across every part of the NHS.”
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