PATIENTS are being held in ambulances for hours as A&Es struggle to cope with winter pressures, it was claimed in a survey.
And health chiefs in Yorkshire admit they are working with hospital and ambulance trusts to cut the hold-ups.
The study was carried out by Labour Party officials who said the Yorkshire Ambulance Trust has reported one of the highest times for patients waiting in an ambulance outside a hospital.
Labour published its sixth NHS Check report on what it says is the worst winter in the NHS for almost a decade.
It says the NHS has been unable to meet its target to treat A&E patients within four hours for the last 17 consecutive weeks.
This winter it claims an extra 47,000 patients have had to wait beyond this target time compared with last year, while an extra 10,400 patients were made to wait 30 minutes or more outside A&Es in the back of ambulances because hospitals were too full.
The Freedom of Information request sent to England’s ambulance trusts revealed some patients waiting outside hospital doors in ambulances for over five hours.
The longest patient waits in ambulances outside hospitals include Yorkshire Ambulance Trust of 3 hours and 48 minutes.
The country’s longest delay was the Great Western Ambulance Trust – 5 hours and 42 minutes.
Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said: “A number of A&Es are simply not coping and these figures show that waiting times are the longest in almost a decade.”
Annette Laban, director of performance for NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, as part of NHS North of England, is working with the three ambulance trusts, acute hospitals and commissioners across the North to look at both handover and turnaround times.
“Each local community is developing plans to improve waiting times and share best practice and innovation across the region.”
