Claims patients are dying in queuing ambulances

Paramedics are "watching their patients die in the back of ambulances because they can't get them into A&E", according to the health union, Unison.

It was commenting on data showing 2,750 hours were lost by ambulance crews waiting to hand over patients at Hull Royal Infirmary in October 2023.

One crew was stuck outside A&E for 10 hours and 27 minutes.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals said it was "confident" a new urgent treatment centre on the hospital site would "improve overall waiting times" and lost ambulance hours had "reduced notably" this month.

The figures, obtained by the BBC through a freedom of information request, showed on 9 October 2023 ambulance crews lost 144 hours and 18 minutes, the equivalent to one crew being out of action for six full days and nights.

Megan Ollerhead, Unison's ambulance lead in Yorkshire, said paramedics were "literally watching their patients die in the back of these ambulances because they can't get into A and E."

"I talk to a lot of the people who receive the 999 calls in the control rooms and they're just listening to people begging for ambulances and they know there are none to send."

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Source: BBC News, 26 January 2024