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Showing results for tags 'Ambulance'.
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News Article
Patient waited 24 hours in ambulance for A&E
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nearly 600 patients waited 10 hours or more in the back of an ambulance to be transferred into emergency departments last month – with one taking 24 hours, HSJ can reveal. The 24-hour wait was the longest handover delay recorded in the past year, and probably ever, according to information released by ambulance trust chief executives. In May last year the longest recorded rate was seven hours. This has risen steadily during the year to hit 24 hours in April. In March a patient in the West Midlands had to wait 23 hours. The figures also show 11,000 patients waited more than three- Posted
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News Article
Tens of thousands waiting too long for 999 calls to be answered in England
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Tens of thousands of emergency calls are taking more than two minutes to be answered in England amid a crisis in the ambulance service, The Independent has learned. More than 37,000 emergency calls took more than two minutes to answer in April 2022 – 24 times the 1,500 that took that long in April 2021, according to a leaked staff message. April’s figures were slightly down compared to March, The Independent understands, when 44,000 calls took more than two minutes to answer. The deterioration in 999 calls being answered within the 60-second goal comes as ambulance services acro- Posted
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- Long waiting list
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News Article
Ambulance wait times endangering patients, doctors say
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Doctors and paramedics have told the BBC that long waits for ambulances across the UK are having a "dangerous impact" on patient safety. BBC analysis found a 77% rise in the most serious safety incidents logged by paramedics in England over the past year, compared to before the pandemic. In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the 999 system is also under "tremendous pressure", doctors say. NHS England said the safety of patients is its "absolute priority". In October, nine-year-old Willow Clark fell off her bike on a country path in Hertfordshire, cracking her helmet and- Posted
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Content Article
Coroner's concerns There were excessive delays in handing over patients at hospital. The West Midlands Ambulance Service Serious Incident report found that there were excessive handover of patients at the Royal Stoke University Hospital, with some holding for over 4 hours. This impacted on the ability of the West Midlands Ambulance Service getting to patients. Oral evidence was given to the effect that this was a national issue, and not limited to the acute trusts within the West Midlands.- Posted
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News Article
Waiting list jumps as A&E chaos persists
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS has recorded its largest monthly increase in the waiting list for 10 months, as unprecedented challenges in urgent and emergency care continue to disrupt recovery. The elective figures published today for March presented mixed results, but much of the good news – a drop in the number of two-year waiters – had already been announced by NHS England in unvalidated figures for April. Meanwhile, the system recorded its largest monthly rise in the overall list for 10 months, with the number of patients growing by 174,847 to hit a new record 6.36 million. This is the biggest month-o- Posted
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- Long waiting list
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News Article
Staff warn of ‘worsening’ culture at beleaguered trust
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The culture at a long-troubled ambulance trust is ‘worsening, not improving’, its staff have told a health watchdog. Concerns about culture and patient safety at East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) were raised to inspectors at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) during an inspection of the trust last month, according to public documents. In a feedback letter to the trust following the inspection, the CQC said staffing at EEAST’s control room was below planned levels, and the inspectors were “not assured that staffing levels met the demands within the service and this may im- Posted
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News Article
Struggling system asks NHSE for help with ambulance handovers
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Health leaders in Lincolnshire have admitted they do not have a ‘robust’ response to managing the risks posed by ambulance handover delays and poor response times. The system’s acute provider, United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT), was consistently among the trusts accounting for the highest proportion of ambulance delays over winter. In a document submitted to NHS England, the county’s integrated care system said: “While the system has good visibility of the level of risk across the system, and there are discussions about this on daily system calls, it is recognised that the sy- Posted
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Officials sound alarm on ambulance stroke response times
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
National NHS officials have called for ambulance response times for stroke cases to be “urgently reviewed”. A report on stroke services by Getting it Right First Time – an NHS England national programme – recommends modelling the impact of a change to the categorisation by ambulance services of suspected strokes. The GIRFT report notes that the time between symptom onset and arrival at hospital has increased by 41 minutes over the last seven years, yet faster access to emergency stroke care gives a better chance of survival and reduces the impact on quality of life for survivors. -
News Article
‘40,000 put at risk last month’ while waiting in ambulance
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than 38,000 patients were put at risk of harm during March – more than 4,000 of them seriously – while they waited in an ambulance outside hospital, according to estimates shared with HSJ. The number of hour-plus delays to handing over patients from ambulances to emergency departments in March was the highest ever recorded, following steep increases since last summer. Figures collected by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), and shared with HSJ, reveal that one trust recorded a delay of 23 hours during March. Based on its detailed information about the len- Posted
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News Article
An NHS boss who had a stroke was taken to A&E by her husband rather than calling for an ambulance because of concerns over long waits. In a series of tweets, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Deborah Lee praised his swift actions. She said he had "bundled her into his car", last week, after she had showed the signs of a stroke because he had heard her "lamenting ambulance delays". She is recovering but says it may have been different if they had called 999. Waits for an ambulance in England are the longest since new targets were introduced, in 2017.- Posted
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Content Article
HSJ Primer: Breaking point (25 April 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Workforce and resources
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- Long waiting list
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News Article
Woman waits six hours for ambulance after fall on her 100th birthday
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A woman has described how she spent more than six hours of her 100th birthday waiting in agony for an ambulance after slipping and fracturing her pelvis while getting ready for a family lunch. Irene Silsby was due to be picked up by her niece, Lynne Taylor, for a celebration to mark her centenary on 9 April. But she fell in the windowless bathroom of her care home in Greetham, Rutland, and staff called an ambulance at 9am after she managed to summon help. “All I remember is I was in terrible pain,” said Silsby from her hospital bed on Saturday. When asked of the ambulance delay, she- Posted
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- Older People (over 65)
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News Article
Surge in serious incidents caused by ambulance delays
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ambulance trusts are seeing rising numbers of serious incidents resulting from delays in reaching patients, research by HSJ has uncovered. Serious incidents are defined by the NHS as a patient safety failure “where the consequences to patients, families and carers, staff or organisations are so significant or the potential for learning is so great, that a heightened level of response is justified.” East Midlands Ambulance Service Trust saw 71 serious incidents in 2021-22 compared with 38 in the financial year before. The trust’s board papers attribute the increase in SIs related to d- Posted
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News Article
Volunteers to use ambulance cars to transport patients to hospital
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Volunteers will transport patients who need extra assistance to hospital to increase ambulance availability for higher-risk patients. The pilot scheme, using ambulance cars, is due to start in London in May. London Ambulance Service said the trained volunteers would be sent to lower category 999 calls where the patient needed help to get to hospital. The service's board meeting was told the scheme would reduce waiting times and increase ambulance availability. Currently, taxis are used to transport "low acuity patients" to hospital, the meeting heard. But there were so -
News Article
‘I feel so let down’: long waits for ambulances in south-west England
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than four hours after an ambulance was called, Richard Carpenter, 71, who had had a suspected heart attack, began to despair. “Where are they?” he asked his wife, Jeanette. “I’m going to die.” She tried to reassure her husband that the crew must surely be close. Perhaps they were struggling to find their rural Wiltshire home in the dark. “But I could see I was losing him,” she said. She gave her husband CPR and urged him: “Don’t leave me.” But by the time the paramedics arrived another hour or so later, it was too late. Jeanette Carpenter, 70, a stoical and reasonable person, ac- Posted
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News Article
Ambulance chief calls out acute trust over ‘lack of action’ on handover delays
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An ambulance service has raised concerns over the record number of ‘hours lost’ to handover delays at an acute hospital on its patch, which it says is happening despite the number of arrivals being at its lowest level in seven years. West Midlands Ambulance Service University Foundation Trust has said the situation at Royal Stoke Hospital presents a “significant risk to patient safety”, but “we don’t currently see actions being taken that are reducing this risk”. It comes amid rising frustrations from ambulance chiefs around the country at a perceived lack of support from acute hospi -
News Article
'He was there four hours begging for help'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An 86-year-old man died after lying in the road waiting more than four hours for an ambulance, his family have said. George Ian Stevenson was hit by a car near his home in Johnstown, Wrexham county, last Wednesday. His family said the first 999 call was made at 19:31 GMT, and the ambulance did not arrive until 23:37 GMT. The Welsh Ambulance Service is looking into the incident, but said that at the time of the call, all its vehicles were already committed to other patients. Two off-duty paramedics stopped to help, but were reluctant to move him in case they caused further injury- Posted
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News Article
Ambulance staff experiencing ‘horrific’ abuse and attacks, NHS warns
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ambulance staff are experiencing “horrific” abuse from the public as attacks on workers increased by 23% in the wake of the pandemic. Assaults against female ambulance staff have risen by 48% in the last five years, according to a new report from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE). In response to rising attacks, the NHS has launched a #workwithoutfear campaign to prevent abuse of ambulance staff. Last year there were 11,749 attacks against ambulance staff, equating to 32 workers being abused or attacked every day. AACE said incidents included kicking, slapping,- Posted
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News Article
111 callers eight times more likely to abandon calls in some areas
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Callers to NHS 111 services are twice as likely to be judged as needing an ambulance in some regions as others – and up to eight times more likely to abandon their calls. An HSJ investigation has revealed striking differences in performance between 111 providers. The new integrated urgent care data set, published by NHS England, shows the differences in performance across the country. HSJ analysed data from April to December last year – the first year this data set has been produced. For example, 15.7% of answered calls to North East Ambulance Service Foundation Trust resulted in an- Posted
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News Article
NHSE wants ‘urgent’ meetings over ambulance handovers risk
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS England and the Care Quality Commission have asked systems with large numbers of ambulance handover delays to urgently hold a meeting to try to fix the problem by “balancing the risks” of long 999 waiting times. The request was made in an email to chief executives, which warned the service was “in a difficult position with all parts of the urgent and emergency care pathway under considerable strain… most acutely in ambulance response times which in turn is linked to challenges in handing patients over to emergency departments”. The NHSE headed letter was signed by its chief opera -
News Article
Majority of ‘last resort’ ambulance diverts reported by only two trusts
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Two acute trusts account for almost two-thirds of emergency department ‘diverts’ reported over the last two months. Between the start of December and the start of February, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust and University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust implemented 122 temporary “diverts” between them – representing around 60% of the national total. The measure is taken when a particular site, such as Worcestershire Royal or Royal Sussex County Hospital, comes under significant pressure and ambulances are temporarily directed to an alternative hospital, usually within the same t- Posted
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Content Article
In this report, the Coroner states that she had been informed that the risk of mortality in the elderly who have suffered significant trauma is high, because they are at greater risk of developing pneumonia. She notes that it is therefore essential that they receive emergency medical care as soon as possible. She highlighted that in this case it took three hours for an ambulance to arrive, and whilst she had no evidence that this delay contributed to Mrs Young's death, she could not confirm that it did not. She stated that future lives could be at risk due to delays in providing a timely emerg- Posted
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- Patient death
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News Article
More than half of NHS paramedics suffering from burnout
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Over half of paramedics are suffering from burnout caused by “overwhelming” workloads, record numbers of 999 calls and the public misusing the ambulance service, a study has found. Frontline crew members also blame lack of meal breaks, delays in reaching seriously ill patients and their shift often not ending when it should for their high levels of stress and anxiety. The working lives of ambulance staff are so difficult that nine out of 10 display symptoms of “depersonalisation”, characterised by “cynicism, detachment and reduced levels of empathy” when dealing with patients who nee- Posted
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- Mental health
- Fatigue / exhaustion
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Content Article
This study from Rachel Beldon and Joanne Garside looked at the contributory factors for burnout in the ambulance service to inform recommendations for positive change. 94% of ambulance staff in this study reported a sense of personal achievement within their professional role; however, more than 50% were experiencing varying levels of burnout with 87% displaying moderate or high levels of depersonalisation towards their work. Causes of stress were complex: themes attributed were a perceived lack of management support, the public's misuse of the ambulance service, involuntary overtime- Posted
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- Fatigue / exhaustion
- Mental health
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