Patient harm 'almost certain' due to ambulance handover delays

Patients are being put at "catastrophic risk" of harm due to ambulance handover delays, health bosses say.

West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) has raised its risk rating for such delays to its highest level for the first time in its history. The risk rating shows the trust believes patient harm is "almost certain" due to the handover hold-ups.

Mark Docherty, director of nursing and clinical commissioning, said it was a "completely unacceptable situation".

It comes as a patient died after waiting more than five hours in the back of an ambulance in Worcestershire.

At a meeting on Wednesday, the ambulance service's board of directors heard the amount of time being lost to delays had reached previously unseen levels, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Mr Docherty warned the situation was set to get worse over the coming months as a result of winter pressures.

"Despite everything we are doing by way of mitigation, we know that patients are coming to harm as a result of delays," he said.

"We know that there are patients that are having significant harm and indeed, through our review of learning from deaths, we know that sadly some patients are dying before we get to them."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 28 October 2021