"Horrendous" A&E wait times affecting East Yorkshire paramedics
A&E wait times at Hull Royal Infirmary were significantly higher than the national average last month.
An East Yorkshire paramedic has said A&E waiting times are stopping him and his colleagues from being able to respond to emergency calls.
Ray Chapman works as a paramedic in Hull - he said: "I've been in the ambulance service for 25 years and just recently, I've never seen anything like it.
"Queues at the hospitals are horrendous. I've done a 12 hour shift and I've waited in the queue for 12 hours with one patient - the whole shift."
NHS figures from the Local Democracy Reporting Service show 48% of patients at Hull Royal Infirmary had to wait over four hours in A&E August, compared to a national average of just 27%. A total of 224 people had to wait over 12 hours in A&E in Hull.
Ray Chapman said: "Hospitals like Hornsea, Withernsea, Alfred Bean in Driffield, and Bridlington and Goole are no longer the hospitals they used to be, so everything now congregates at Hull Royal, which then puts an enormous pressure on the whole system down there."
With paramedics stuck in queues at A&E, they can struggle to attend emergency calls - Yorkshire Ambulance Service data showed the average response time for category two calls such as heart attacks was 27 minutes in August, well above the 18 minute target time.
Ray Chapman said: "Some people can't handle it, some people are leaving the service - they just can't cope with that pressure and stress and I completely understand why."