Ambulance delays and A&E wait times in Northamptonshire 'as bad as they have ever been', according to experts

At a Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) meeting held on Thursday (December 19), board members heard how emergency care and ambulance services were struggling this winter.

Figures revealed in meeting report papers show that ambulance handover times in both Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals (NGH & KGH) have increased again. Less than half of handovers were completed within 30 minutes in October compared to 65 percent of handovers completed on time during the same period last year.

October was also the first time ever that one-hour ambulance turnarounds in the county had dropped below 75 percent. Data from the last week of November showed this had worsened further with three-quarters of patients waiting more than half an hour for transfers to A&E.

Eileen Doyle, the chief operating officer of the ICB said: “It’s impossible to ignore the effects of winter at the moment. Many of our teams are absolutely embedded in what feels like a winter that started about four or five weeks early, compared to last year.

“The ambulance response times in the county are as bad as they have ever been and it’s something we’re all very conscious of and working on an hourly basis actually to try and keep ambulances on the road and to respond to people calling in for help.

“What we’ve got is overcrowding and the two A&E departments are tiny. Therefore if UHN colleagues don’t get the flow out, we just simply can’t keep things moving and we back up. I’ve been doing this for many decades now and this is the most challenged I’ve ever seen ambulances ever.

“It’s trying to balance everything at the moment, particularly the winter effect, and not taking down lots of activity. It’s a tough time at the moment but we’re managing just.”

‘Bottom of the spectrum’

Category 2 response times for ambulances in serious but non-life-threatening situations reportedly took one hour and 15 minutes on average in October, which was longer than both national and regional averages of under an hour. The national target is 18 minutes on average for such incidents.

Toby Sanders, chief executive of Northamptonshire ICB said: “We often say it’s important that we’ve got to acknowledge honestly where things are at across the system.

“Things like category 2 response times, ambulance handover waits and 12-hour waits in ED are pretty much amongst the worst I can recall in my NHS career and nationally at the moment. Northamptonshire, on many weeks, is very much at the bottom of the spectrum nationally as well.”

He added that the response to the pressures this winter from different organisations and health partners had been “admirable”.