Over 10,000 patients had to wait at least 30 minutes in ambulances outside A&E in the week ending December 3rd, new figures on winter pressures facing the NHS have revealed.

In almost 2,000 cases patients faced handover delays of over an hour, due to a lack of capacity at A&Es.

Liberal Democrat Former Health Minister Norman Lamb commented:

“These completely unacceptable delays are a long-running problem that the Government is failing to address, and they are getting worse.

“There is no doubt that lives are being lost as a result of these pressures.

“The ambulance stuck outside an A&E department could well be needed by another patient waiting desperately at home for help. This is intolerable.

“The Government knows all about the human impact of its failure to address the NHS funding crisis yet does nothing about it.

“We will only see these problems worsen after the Chancellor’s woefully inadequate response in last month’s Budget.

“Throwing some extra money at A&E is a sticking plaster solution, what we need is a cross-party process to come up with a long-term settlement for the NHS and social care.”

Notes

Today’s NHS winter pressure figures on the week finishing 3rd December can be found here

• 10,196 patients experienced handover delays of 30 minutes or more after arriving in an ambulance to hospital
• 1,844 patients experienced handover delays of 60 minutes or more