Delays in ambulance handovers ‘increased patient risk’

Inspectors have found that long handover waits for patients kept in ambulances outside hospitals increased the risks to them.

The Care Quality Commission said West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) failed to meet handover targets and response times during an inspection in November.

However, crews were praised for their care and compassion to patients in their vehicles during the lengthy delays.

The NHS target is for patient handovers to be completed within 15 minutes, with none waiting for longer than 30 minutes.  However, on the day of the inspection, one patient had waited for longer than 19 hours in an ambulance to be admitted, and the average wait was around 6.5 hours.

Sonia Brooks from the CQC said following the inspection “The delays in handing people over at hospitals meant that ambulances and crews couldn’t be made available to attend other calls.

“These lengthy delays at hospitals increased risk to people, particularly those that had been lying on trolleys or stretchers in ambulances for long periods of time.”

A spokesperson from the trust said “We will continue to work with the hospitals to find new ways of reducing the time patients are left on ambulances so our crews can respond more quickly to patients in the community and save more lives.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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