Nearly half of ambulance crews were delayed by more than half an hour when delivering patients to England’s A&E departments in the week preceding January 1st, according to new data.
44% of flights were delayed by 30 minutes or more, the highest percentage ever recorded.
More than a quarter (26%) of flights were over one hour late.
Flu cases have increased by 47% in recent weeks, revealing the strains hospitals have experienced.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated on Wednesday, at his first big speech of 2023. That concerns confronting the NHS were “at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
“I am aware of the difficulties at A&E; people are understandably concerned when they see ambulances lined up outside hospitals,” he continued. Before promising that the government is “acting swiftly.”
Providing fresh funding to discharge people into social care and the community. So freeing up beds, and the NHS is urgently working on further plans for A&E and ambulances.
Twenty-four ambulances were parked outside the A&E department of the Royal Stoke University Hospital on January 1.
A member of the ambulance staff informed that at one point throughout the day. Their official dashboard indicated that 32 ambulances were waiting to transfer patients at the hospital. With extra cars waiting around the rear of the hospital because the front parking spaces were filled.
