Devon and Cornwall ambulance delivery delays worst in England – data

Three hospitals in Devon and Cornwall have the worst record for ambulance handover delays in England, with the highest proportion of patients waiting more than an hour, according to BBC analysis of NHS data.

The review found that Derriford Hospital, Royal Cornwall Hospital and Torbay Hospital each had more than 40% of patients arriving by ambulance waiting more than 60 minutes to be handed over to A&E staff last winter, compared to a national figure of 8, 8%

The NHS apologized and said it was working hard to improve waiting times.

The BBC analyzed daily teaching statistics published by the NHS between November 2023 and March 2024.

The analysis showed that 63% of patients who arrived by ambulance were left waiting in an ambulance for more than 60 minutes at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth during that period.

It showed 55% of patients waited more than an hour at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, while 45% of patients waited more than an hour at Torbay Hospital.

The national target is for all handovers between ambulances and emergency departments to take place within 15 minutes, with no one waiting more than 30 minutes.

Tony Hudson, 74, died at the Royal Cornwall Hospital on 27 December 2022.

Ms Hudson said she called the emergency services at around 1am on December 15, 2022, but the ambulance arrived after 2pm the next day.

She said she was not surprised that hospitals in Devon and Cornwall were at the bottom of the rankings.

“As we said last year, we have always been concerned that there is only one hospital in Cornwall,” she said.

“I don’t know if anybody really realizes how terribly, terribly serious this is.

“I mean, people die because they don’t get emergency care.”

Dr Ian Higginson, vice president at the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said “emergency care is in disarray at the moment”.

“Both patients and staff will tell you that,” he said.

“The major problem we face is overcrowding in our emergency departments, and that’s because our hospitals are full.

“And then we could see patients in our corridors or even our parking lots stuck in ambulances.”

He said the South West was not unique, but the region had some specific challenges.

“We have an aging population, areas of deprivation,” he said.

“Some areas where there are not enough family doctors.

“We can also be quite a rural area at times and of course there are seasonal variations for some areas.”

Dr Higginson said he was disappointed that urgent care was not a “hot topic” during the election campaign.

“Most of the manifestos were pretty light on the details of how the parties proposed to fix urgent and urgent care,” he said.

“It would be good to see him higher on the political agenda.”

Two of the three hospitals responded to the BBC’s request for comment.

Both admitted patients faced “unacceptable waiting times in ambulances”.

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust said: “We are very sorry for anyone experiencing these expectations.

“We are working hard to ensure people are treated in a timely manner and from March 2024 to May 2024 we have seen a reduction of around 3,000 hours of ambulance hours lost due to delays.

“However, we know there is still significant work to be done.”

NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly said: “We regret that patients are waiting longer than they should be seen in the emergency department and are working across the health and care system to address this as one of our highest priorities common.”