'Log jam' delays Lincolnshire ambulances
Ambulances are being kept off Lincolnshire's roads for "hundreds of valuable hours" each year, it has been claimed.
East Midlands Ambulance Service say staff have been regularly delayed getting back on the road by queues at A&E departments in Lincoln County Hospital and Boston Pilgrim Hospital.
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Staff have been regularly delayed getting back on the road by queues at A&E departments
Crews have to remain with patients until they are handed over to the hospital for treatment and cannot be called out to other jobs.
Lincolnshire divisional manager for EMAS Peter Jones told councillors at this week's Lincolnshire Health Scrutiny Committee they were working hard to change this situation.
Mr Jones said there had been occasions where he took management staff to hospitals to remain with patients while they waited for assistance.
He said this action was taken to free up ambulance staff and allow them to finish their emergency call-out cycle.
"We are working very hard with the primary care trust and the acute hospitals to solve the problem," he said.
He added the service should not be experiencing delays on a regular basis which were currently "costing us hundreds of hours a year in valuable time on the road".
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust spokesman Anna Temple said: "We do not have a particular problem with ambulances waiting outside Lincoln County Hospital.
"However, demand on our A&E departments does fluctuate, and at times a high volume of people come through the departments and are brought to the departments in ambulances.
"When this is the case, we deal with cases based on their urgency and the order in which they arrive, which can occasionally lead to some patients waiting slightly longer to be seen than others."
2 Comments
by bob, lincoln
Friday, January 29 2010, 3:11PM
“well said berty. i do believe that the pct's and the hospitals are hoodwinking the public with regards to patient care. Many a time i have seen the ambulance crews queued up in the corridor and not being able to hand over their patients due to either over worked staff in the dept or staff that just will not take the patients from the crews.
I have also heard the people on the radios talking to the paramedics to find out what the delays are to be told its the staff.
come on the hospitals get a grip and sort this out. people depend on the ambulances getting to them on time when they need them. lets not let them down”
by Berty Dell, Lincoln
Friday, December 18 2009, 9:28AM
“If you ring 999 and your unwell, you get an ambulance! if that Para/Tech/ECA deem you as unwell (clinical experience) you go to hospital.. shame the hospital will leave you outside, because you might upset their target figures and breech their govt. given time frame (that is the real reason) Because if it was a patient care issue everyone knows that the back of a cold emergency vehicle,10 feet from casualty, is so much better than an A&E trolley Thank goodness EMAS knows what CARE stands for and won't abandon people, as the hospitals, Boston/Grimsby and Lincoln have forgotten.
Next time people wonder where a proper 2 person ambulance is whilst their relative is ill/dying, now you know, It's not EMAS but the A&E depts that are stopping them. It is about time this was highlighted, Well done Echo for fair reporting.”