Ambulance crews and A&E staff have slashed handover delays by
more than seven minutes this winter — even as they ferried the
highest number of patients to hospital in half a decade.
Figures out today show that more than 1.2million patients were
handed over (1,234,731) to A&Es by ambulances so far this
winter.
This is the highest since the same period in 2021/22, and almost
52,000 (51,989) more than the equivalent period last year.
Despite the five-year high figure, ambulances and A&E staff
combined to handover over patients more than seven minutes
quicker last week (28:14) than the same week last year (35:36).
The number of ambulance handovers taking over 30 minutes was also
down by more than a fifth (21.9%) compared with the same week
last year.
The number of patients in hospital with norovirus (924) was
slightly down on last week (1012) and the almost 19m (18.8m) flu
vaccinations delivered this year have helped ensure the number of
patients in hospital beds continues to fall this week to 682.
NHS national medical director Professor Meghana Pandit
said:
“Despite ever-increasing demand, especially on emergency care,
it's fantastic to see that the hard work of NHS staff has
continued to deliver improvements for patients this winter.
“Ambulance crews are getting people into hospital faster, working
with A&E staff so they can be treated sooner, and vaccination
teams have helped reduce the number of cases of flu.
“The public deserve credit too - from getting their jabs in ever
increasing numbers, which has helped to ease spread of winter
bugs, through to using more services in the community, where it's
more appropriate than going straight to A&E.
“It's really important this team effort continues as we see out
another challenging winter.”
