Up to 100,000 patients have been forced to wait in the back of an ambulance for at least 30 minutes this winter due to A&E overcrowding, according to new NHS figures. Of these, almost a quarter – 24,624 – endured delays of an hour or more, as hospital staff struggled to cope with a surge in demand.
The delays have left ambulance crews tied up outside emergency departments, unable to respond quickly to 999 calls. Last week alone, crews were held up 12,559 times, pushing the total since 21 November past the 100,000 mark. Emergency departments also temporarily diverted patients to other hospitals on 188 occasions during the same period.
Labour and health unions have criticised the situation, warning that patient safety is at risk. In Wales, senior A&E doctors wrote to First Minister Carwyn Jones, stating that emergency departments there are "in some ways" in a worse position than in England, with insufficient staff and beds to meet the needs of an ageing population.
Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the NHS winter crisis had left staff close to exhaustion, with high demand sustained for weeks. He cautioned that trusts must help staff cope to avoid illness from exhaustion, which is now a real danger.
NHS England noted that pressures were abating slightly compared to the first week of January, but acknowledged that raised levels of flu and norovirus continued to strain frontline services.
