Ambulance handover delays begin to improve in Cambridgeshire

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), which runs Addenbrooke's Hospital, saw the number of ambulances queuing for longer than 30 minutes drop from 56 per cent to 26 per cent in the week beginning on January 2.

The improvement in handover timings also ensured that CUH hospitals bettered the national average (36 per cent) for handover delays of more than 30 minutes in a week for the first time since November.

Chief Operating Officer for CUH,  Nicola Ayton, said: "We remain in one of the most challenging periods for the NHS, but thanks to the extraordinary work of our staff and with our partners across the local health system, we are seeing ambulance waiting times improve at CUH. 

"We must now continue with this focus, to ensure that every day we provide life-saving and life-improving care for our patients." 

Despite the recent developments, CUH hospitals still experience handover delays, with 45 out of 470 (9.5 per cent) arrivals having to wait more than 60 minutes in an ambulance between January 2-8, meaning the hospital isn't hitting its contractual target.

The NHS contract for 2022/23 stipulates that NHS trusts have a target for 95 per cent of all ambulance handovers to be completed within 30 minutes and 100 per cent within 60 minutes.

North West Anglia Trust 

Struggling to meet these targets are hospitals run by North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (NWAFT), which includes Peterborough City Hospital and Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

Out of 711 ambulance arrivals between January 2-8, 163 patients were waiting longer than 30 minutes, and 263 were waiting longer than 60 minutes, meaning 60 per cent of arrivals experienced delays.

However, this was an improvement on the last three weeks, with the percentage of arrivals experiencing deals reaching as high as 70 per cent in December.

In general, according to BBC Look East, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough trusts were not the worst nationally and didn't feature in the top 10 worst trusts for handover delays.

Jo Bennis, the chief nurse for NWAFT, said: "Winter is always a challenging time for healthcare providers as respiratory illnesses are more prevalent, and the very cold weather can exacerbate accidents and other ailments.

"We are doing all we can to reduce waiting times in our emergency department by redeploying more staff to support the teams on duty.

"We review the situation regularly each day and are working to explore any opportunity that will allow us to improve ambulance handover times.

"We encourage our local community to use NHS 111 for advice on where to access the most appropriate treatment for their healthcare needs before they come to hospital."

December difficulties

Handover delays have been attributed to discharge delays and the sheer magnitude of calls, with NHS statistics for December revealing the ambulance service, answered 1,014,489, or 32,725 per day, each the highest on record.

Whilst strike action affected many ambulance services, the workers at EEAS weren't involved in a walkout but instead were dealing with in excess of roughly 5,000 calls in December, according to Folksworth Community First Responders.

The EEAS declared a 'critical incident' due to pressure from 999 call volumes and hospital handover delays in December to allow them to deal with extreme demand.

The intense demand led to CUH losing 832 hours to ambulance handover delays and NWAFT losing 2,643 hours.

This EEAS eventually stood down its incident declaration on January 4, but "huge pressures" still remain.

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesperson said: "December was an extremely challenging month for the service and the NHS as a whole.

"In the past two weeks, we have seen an improvement in our response times as demand has fallen slightly.  

"However, the NHS remains very challenged, and we continue to ask the public to use our services wisely as we must prioritise those most in need."