Ambulances spend 900 extra hours at hospital because of slow transfer
Ambulances spent 900 extra hours in Scotland's hospitals in a month due to slower turnaround times, figures have shown.
Ambulances spent 900 extra hours in Scotland's hospitals in a month due to slower turnaround times, figures have shown.
Bosses at the Scottish Ambulance Service said it was taking more than a minute longer each time paramedics transferred a patient into a hospital across the country.
Board meeting papers show in August 2015 the average ambulance took 25 minutes 19 seconds to get back out of hospital and respond to a 999 call but this had risen to 26 minutes 43 seconds in August 2016 - an increase of one minute and 24 seconds.
The official papers state: Extrapolated over the course of the whole month, the extra time spent at hospital nationally equates to over 900 additional hours. This means that ambulances are spending more time at hospital reducing their availability to respond to Category A demand. This has undoubtedly placed an additional pressure on the service's resources.''
The board said initiatives were taking place to try to improve and since the papers were published a new response times trial aimed at prioritising serious road crashes and cardiac arrests has come into force.
Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Donald Cameron said: The more time an ambulance spends getting in and out of hospital, the less time it spends responding to emergencies.
There is very clearly a problem here, with ambulances taking almost a minute-and-a-half longer every time they have to turn around at hospital than last year.This may seem small but once extrapolated over an entire month, it amounts to hundreds upon hundreds of hours wasted.
Money is tight right now across the NHS, but this is something we have got to sort out. The Scottish Government has to work with ambulance bosses and paramedics to see how this can be improved.
Ambulance staff do a fantastic job under extremely tough circumstances, but from this it's clear they need more support to drop patients off so they can get back out responding to emergencies as quickly as possible.'' Health Secretary Shona Robison said:Despite the Scottish Ambulance Service recently experiencing higher demand levels, its crews are saving the lives of more people than ever before. Patient safety will always be their number one priority.
It is important for ambulance crews to be able to transfer patients quickly and safely at A&E departments so that they are available to respond to other patients in the community when needed.
As part of the winter funding provided by the Scottish Government, SAS has seven hospital liaison officers on site in east central, north, south west and west central Scotland working closely not only with emergency departments but also with other parts of the healthcare system to improve patients' flows/smooth arrival times, minimise hospital turnaround times and optimise patient discharges.
We have increased the Scottish Ambulance Service budget by £11.4 million this year, which includes funding to train an additional 200 paramedics as part of our commitment to training 1,000 more in the next five years. The funding will also ensure more clinical advisers and dispatch staff in control rooms, as well as improving care in remote and rural communities.''
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: It is important for ambulance crews to be able to transfer patients quickly and safely at A&E departments, so that they are available to respond to other patients in the community when needed.
The service is working with emergency departments to release valuable ambulances as quickly as possible. For example, Hospital Ambulance Liaison Officers (HALOs) are Scottish Ambulance Service managers who work with hospital staff to support a prompt handover of our patients into their care, to free up our crews to respond to other patients who need our help.The service is also working in partnership with other NHS Boards to improve the flow of patients into hospital, and when patients are being discharged. This includes working with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and other NHS Boards to reduce hospital turnaround times and help reduce delays in patient discharges. In addition, we are helping keep more patients who do not need to go to hospital, at home. We achieve this by working in partnership with other healthcare providers, such as GPs and falls teams. We work with these partners to ensure that care arrangements are in place for those patients who do not need to be admitted to hospital and can be safely cared for in their own home.''