Hull Royal Infirmary records 6-hour ambulance handover times
High handover times have left paramedics stuck outside the hospital for hours at a time.
Last updated 30th Oct 2023
An ambulance had to wait outside Hull Royal Infirmary for six hours and 26 minutes in June before its patient could be seen at the hospital, our investigation has found.
The time is recorded from the time the ambulance arrives at A&E to when the patient is admitted to hospital. During this time, paramedics are unable to respond to other calls.
In July, Hull held the unwanted record of the longest handover time of any hospital in Yorkshire - five hours and 50 minutes. It had the longest handover yet again in August, with a time of five hours and 56 minutes.
A Hull paramedic has told Viking FM that on some occasions, at least 12 ambulances can be queueing up outside A&E at a time.
Jackie Cole, Deputy Head of Operations at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: "The lengthy hospital handover times illustrated in the data are an indication of the ongoing operational pressures being experienced by ambulance services and hospital trusts."
NHS figures from the Local Democracy Reporting Service showed 48% of patients at Hull Royal Infirmary had to wait over four hours in A&E in 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.
A spokesperson for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Hospital staff work incredibly hard to keep patients safe and keep ambulance handover times to a minimum. Almost 2,900 patients arrived at Hull Royal Infirmary in August 2023 by emergency ambulance, with an average handover time of just 29 minutes.
“The longest wait was experienced on a day of significant operational pressures, namely Bank Holiday Monday, 28th August, when the hospital was already working to recover from a recent two-day strike by hospital consultants.”