More than a dozen trusts have not been meeting a new “maximum” NHS England standard through the spring and summer, HSJ can reveal.
Analysis of NHS England data reveals that 50 of 117 acute trusts (42%) had worse average ambulance handover times in the first four months of 2025-26, compared with the previous year.
At 17 trusts, average handover times so far this year have been above 45 minutes – which NHSE has declared should be the definitive “maximum” time.
Nationally, average handover times have slightly improved from this year to last (27 mins vs 30 mins). See the table below for the full data.
NHSE has signalled it will get a stronger grip on handover delays – which are a key factor behind longer ambulance response times and have been linked to patient harm and deaths.
This year’s planning guidance said trusts should “[work] towards delivering hospital handovers within 15 minutes [and] ensure that no handover takes longer than 45 minutes”. National urgent and emergency care director Sarah-Jane Marsh has said “we need the average to be much, much better than 45 minutes”.
Royal College of Emergency Medicine president Adrian Boyle said: “No one working in emergency care wants to see ambulances stuck outside emergency departments, but fixing this requires system wide co-ordination and flow.
“We do not support single service initiatives such as [45 minutes ‘maximum’ handover time] without a hospital wide commitment to improve flow.”
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Source: HSJ, 19 August 2025
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