Morecambe Bay patients wait more than 100 extra hours in ambulances outside hospitals

New figures show that across England, more patients waited in an ambulance for more than an hour than at any stage last winter.

Health charity the King’s Fund said the NHS is "bursting at the seams" as it recovers from the coronavirus pandemic and attempts to meet sharply rising demand, while think tank the Nuffield Trust said it is "painfully visible that ambulance services are under severe strain".

NHS England figures show 69 patients waited in an ambulance for at least one hour when they arrived at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust A&E in the week to Sunday (December 4) – up from 25 the week before.

A further 49 patients were forced to wait between 30 minutes and one hour, meaning 22% of the 530 total ambulance arrivals were delayed by half an hour or more, and at least 125 hours were lost.

NHS targets state trusts should complete 95% of all ambulance handovers in 30 minutes, with all conducted in less than one hour.

Danielle Jefferies, analyst at the King's Fund, said improving ambulance delays has been a government priority for some time.

Ms Jefferies added: "Problems at the hospital front door are indicative of issues at the back door.

"People are being stranded in hospital because of a long-term lack of investment in social care and NHS community services."

Nationally, 24,000 handovers (31%) were delayed by at least 30 minutes last week, while 11,300 (15%) had to wait more than one hour.

Both are significantly up on comparable December weeks in 2020 and 2021 and reached higher levels than any week last winter.

Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust, said: "NHS hospitals are desperately struggling to get patients in and patients out fast enough, and the situation continues to deteriorate as the temperature drops and we head into the most challenging winter months.

"Ambulances are one of the most visible and vital cogs of the emergency care machine, and it is becoming more painfully visible that they are under severe strain.”

Health and Social Care secretary Steve Barclay said the Government is providing £8 billion in funding "to boost performance and recover services to pre-pandemic levels".