Scottish ambulance crews wasted 8000 hours waiting to transfer patients

The figure is the total amount of time over 30 minutes that it took for crews to transfer patients after arriving at hospitals.

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) said that as well as reducing the ability to respond to emergencies, despatching paramedics from hospitals rather than "tactical deployment points" increases the time taken to reach seriously ill patients.

Scottish Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP said the "terrifying statistics" pointed to access blockages at the sharp end of the NHS, that, "tragically will only increase the spiralling number of avoidable deaths."

A paramedic source said eight ambulances queued for six hours outside Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital last Wednesday night.

It comes after the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) in Scotland, warned that the country is facing “biggest patient safety crisis in emergency care for a generation”.

READ MORE: 'Biggest patients safety crisis in a generation' amid record-breaking A&E delays  

For the first time on record, more than 1000 patients spent over 12 hours in A&E departments last week and one in 10 were delayed by eight hours or more.

The RCEM estimates there has been 240 avoidable deaths since the start of the year due to delays.

The SAS said ambulance turnaround times have been compounded by strict infection prevention and control measures that hospitals have had to put in place due to Covid.

Pressure on beds is being driven by soaring rates of the virus, which is resulting in high numbers of Covid positive patients being admitted to hospital who must be isolated, along with staff shortages due to the infection, and outbreaks in cares homes exacerbating delayed discharge.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said that the Chief Nursing Office is reviewing national Infection Control guidance with a view to easing current restrictions to try to reduce bed pressures on hospitals.

More than 98% of ambulance crews' 'lost time' was spent at hospitals in six Scottish health boards.

The longest waits were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde (2,830 hours) followed by Ayrshire and Arran (1,420) and Grampian (1,262).

READ MORE:  Emergency patients in Glasgow facing six-hour waits to be transfered to hospital

Crews lost 1,213 hours at Lanarkshire hospitals, 749 in Lothian and 331 in Fife.

Pauline Howie, Chief Executive of the SAS writes:  "The situation remains particularly challenging in some hospital sites affecting ambulance response times, ambulance availability, staff rest periods and shift overruns. 

"An increase in median turnaround translates to reduced availability of ambulances to respond to other patients who have made emergency calls. 

"In addition to more time being spent at hospital, tasking crews from hospital rather than tactical deployment points can also negatively impact on the time taken to reach patients.

Scottish Labour’s Health spokesperson Jackie Baillie added: "After 15 years of the SNP running our NHS - this is the shocking position Scottish healthcare has been left in.

“Patients are stuck waiting in ambulances queued outside hospitals in pain and needing treatment while NHS staff are run off their feet and trying to properly care for patients in a system that is clearly not working."

Between February 2020 and February 2022 the average turnaround time increased by almost eight minutes.

Scottish Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP said: “These are terrifying statistics that point to a vicious cycle of access blockages at the sharp end of the NHS, that, tragically, will only increase the spiralling number of avoidable deaths.

“Excessive ambulance waiting times and increasing A&E waiting times are not new problems in our NHS - and the common factor in both is staff shortages.

“The buck for that stops with the Health Secretary and the SNP Government due to their poor workforce planning across Scotland’s health service.  

“The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) could not be more stark in spelling out what this means. Humza Yousaf must act now to alleviate the crippling pressures on emergency medicine or increasing numbers of patients will die needlessly.”

The SAS said it was meeting with managers at the "most challenging" hospital sites one or twice a week.

In addition, the service has deployed 22 hospital liason workers to emergency sites to try to speed up turnover times.

Humza Yousaf said staff absences and a growing number of acutely unwell patients, resulting in longer stays was also having an impact on A&E services.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The pandemic has been the biggest challenge the NHS has faced in its 73-year existence and has heaped pressure on our ambulance service and wider NHS, and the last couple of weeks have seen some of the biggest pressures on our hospitals in the entire pandemic in terms of patients with covid.

“The Scottish Government is working closely with both the Scottish Ambulance Service and Health Boards to reduce turnaround times at hospitals ensuring SAS has the resources and skilled staff in place to continue to deliver a high quality emergency health service.

"SAS has just completed a record year of recruitment with 540 staff recruited. 

“This will ensure the Scottish Ambulance Service is working as efficiently as possible and have resources in place to meet both current and projected future demand.

"We are clear that patient safety must always remain our number one priority. This increase in staffing and resources, aligned to new shift patterns and demand, aims to improve both patient safety and staff welfare.”