The number of ambulances in London facing a delay when handing patients over to A&E has risen by nearly a tenth in three weeks, new figures show, as NHS bosses warn that hospitals are “struggling to get patients through the front door and out the back”.
More than a quarter (26.7 per cent) of all ambulances in London faced a delay of over 30 minutes when transferring patients into emergency care on January 28 – a rise of 9 per cent on the figure reported three weeks before.
The figures suggest that winter pressure on the NHS may be peaking slightly later than usual due to a surge in flu cases after the New Year. Separate data shows that hospitalisations due to flu have reached the highest level in over a year, with admissions jumping two-thirds in the week up to January 28.
At the same point last year, under a fifth of ambulances (19 per cent) faced a delay of more than half an hour when handing over a patient.
The target is for handovers to be completed within 15 minutes and health leaders have warned that handover delays are leading to patients dying.
Handover delays usually arise when NHS hospitals struggle to discharge fit patients from their care and free up beds. This creates long delays in A&E and prevents ambulances from responding to other calls in the community.
The figures show a variation in performance across different NHS trusts in the capital. At North Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust, six in ten (60 per cent) ambulances faced a delay of more than 30 minutes to hand over a patient, while 14 per cent waited over an hour.
At Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Trust, one in ten (11.45 per cent) ambulances faced a wait over more than half an hour.
Rory Deighton, director of the NHS Confederation’s Acute Network, said that hospitals were “struggling to get patients through the front door and out the back”.
“This is causing further delays for patients and frustrating staff who have already worked flat out through the pandemic and a year of industrial action and want to provide the best care possible to patients.”
He added that there is growing concern among NHS leaders that funding pressures across local government are leaving councils unable to offer care packages, meaning that many patients are languishing in hospital with nowhere to go.
“With further reports of local authorities facing financial crisis there needs to be a continued focus on supporting councils and funding social care so that we can support the domiciliary care sector to manage the demand it is facing and ease the pressure on hospitals,” he said.
