EXCLUSIVE: Over 52 days worth of NE ambulance queues in one month
In a Metro Radio - we can reveal 52 days’ worth of ambulance time was WASTED in queues in a single month and bosses say it's a huge concern.
More than 50 days’ worth of ambulance time was wasted queuing outside our region's A&E departments in a single month.
A Metro Radio FOI has revealed 1268 hours was spent by paramedics waiting to hand over patients at North East Accident and Emergency departments in March 2016.
Over the past year, from June 2015 to May 2016, the time spent in queues in excess of the 15 minute standard per ambulance worked out at more than 332 days worth.
North East Ambulance Service Chief Exec, Yvonne Ormston, said:
'It's a huge concern to us as an ambulance service, both in terms of the impact on patients who are requiring our service and waiting for a response and then the cumliative impact that has on our performance.
If our crews are in hospitals in A&E units then they're not out on the road responding to patients so of course that creates a pressure for our staff''
The new hospital at Cramlington, Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, had the most congestion, with around 20 days worth of time spent wasted on queues. This compared to around 38 hours when the hospital opened in June 2015.
Northumbria Healthcare Medical Director Jeremy Rushmer says its been one of their biggest challenges. He said:
"What we've done is move from three ambulance queues at our three previous sites down to one, so all of the problems that we've had with our being so busy have become more visible
We work very closely with our partners so every day, every week, every month we're always working with new ideas to try and improve the queues"
Dr Rushmer tells us that around half of their patients that have arrived by ambulance weren't actually admitted to hospital. He explains:
"There's been over the year 15% more people coming to our A&E at Cramlington, now by far and away we see more ambulances than any other trust in the region
When they're waiting, even if there's reduced clinical risk, it does mean they can't be out there seeing other patients"
Meanwhile, Darlington Memorial Hospital topped the table for Teesside with over 355 hours spent in queues in February this year. That's about 15 days worth, compared to just under 39 hours in September 2015.
We've reached out to the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust for comment but they've been unable to provide one.
View all the stats from your hospital here: