More than 4,000 ambulance patients were forced to wait over an hour outside A&E departments across Greater Manchester so far this winter.
The NHS in our region is hamstrung by strikes, a 'twindemic' of flu and Covid, collapsing social care and more emergency department attendances than ever before. Doctors say demand is far outstripping capacity - there simply are not enough pairs of hands or beds to cope with the onslaught of extremely ill patients.
Running alongside these day-to-day pressures, social care resources are spread so thinly that hundreds of medically fit patients ready for discharge cannot be sent home for 'weeks' at a time. There aren't not enough care home staff and home helpers to keep patients safe and monitor them when they leave hospital.
The number of people remaining in hospital for much longer than they need to has created a severe bed shortage. There is no room left for patients coming through A&E and being brought in by ambulances, prompting huge queues of blue light vehicles.
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There were a total of 28,971 ambulance arrivals at A&E departments in Greater Manchester between November 14 2022 and January 1 2023, according to new data released by the NHS. However, the current NHS crisis means that 8,527 of those (29 per cent) have faced long handover delays.
A total of 4,079 arrivals had a delay of over an hour between arrival and handover (14 per cent of arrivals). Meanwhile, a further 4,448 faced delays of between 30 and 60 minutes.
Those delays added up to a total of 7,196 lost hours for ambulance crews.
The figures for our region are made up of:
- Wrightington, Wigan And Leigh NHS Foundation Trust (25 per cent over 60 minutes)
- Bolton NHS Foundation Trust (19 per cent over 60 minutes)
- Stockport NHS Foundation Trust (17 per cent over 60 minutes)
- Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust - which runs Manchester Royal Infirmary, Wythenshawe Hospital, Trafford General Hospital, the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Saint Mary's Hospital, North Manchester General, and Altrincham Hospital (14 per cent over 60 minutes)
- Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust - which runs Salford Royal, the Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield General, and Rochdale Infirmary (9 per cent over 60 minutes)
- Tameside And Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (8 per cent over 60 minutes)
In the week leading up to January 6, there were 650 delays of up to an hour, and 879 delays of over an hour. Those delays have cost ambulance crews a combined total of 1,627 hours.
Nationally, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust in Norfolk had the worst record of any trust in England. Some 59 per cent of all ambulance arrivals have had to wait over an hour to be admitted at the trust since November 14. University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, meanwhile, has had 58 per cent of arrivals wait for over an hour.
East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, and Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, all had 52 per cent of arrivals wait over an hour.
One issue facing the NHS is the inability to discharge patients. The NHS publishes daily data on discharges. Using the last Thursday of December 2022 as a snapshot, we can see how many people were taking up beds despite being well enough to leave.
- Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust had 304 patients ready to discharge but was only able to release 4 per cent of them.
- Stockport NHS Foundation Trust had 115 patients ready to discharge but was only able to release 6 per cent of them.
- Wrightington, Wigan And Leigh NHS Foundation Trust had 109 patients ready to discharge but was only able to release 20 per cent of them.
- Bolton NHS Foundation Trust had 147 patients ready to discharge but was only able to release 25 per cent of them.
- Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust had 457 patients ready to discharge but was only able to release 45 per cent of them.
- Tamesideand Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust had 124 patients ready to discharge but was only able to release 65 per cent of them.
The North West has been ranked as the worst region for getting medically fit patients discharged.
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