Ambulances told to leave patients in hospital corridors in bid to cut wait times

21 October 2024, 11:27

Ambulances have reportedly been told to leave patients in hospital corridors to allow them to respond more quickly to 999 calls.

NHS England recommended ambulance services adopt the so-called “drop and go” practice currently being used in London.

The method has been credited with reducing heart attack and stroke numbers.

The argument made by the NHS suggests it’s safer to leave patients anywhere in a hospital, rather than risk delays elsewhere.

However, A&E doctors have told the Times that this practice is “not acceptable” and slammed the idea that patients would be left in corridors without a proper handover.

Read more: 'No plans' to fine patients for missing NHS appointments minister insists - as Streeting tables plans to curbs no-shows

Handovers are supposed to take just 15 minutes, but delays have been cited as a cause of the massive and dangerous wait times many people face after calling an ambulance.

'Biggest reform since 1948' promised for the NHS

Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of the London Ambulance Service, told the Times that before they began using “drop and go” they were “regularly losing up to 600 hours of time waiting to hand over patient care at hospitals every day”.

He said: “That is approximately 15 per cent of our ambulances out of action for the whole day, and is time that could have been spent responding to, and caring for, patients. That number of time lost is now almost half what it was.

“The risks to patients waiting extended periods of time at home for an ambulance are well known.

“A fundamental element of the care we provide is ensuring we can get to people who need us quickly. Our staff will only follow the 45-minute handover policy when it is safe for the patient to do so.”

A number of services have adopted the policy, the publication reports, with the East England Ambulance service saying: “If a handover has taken over 45 minutes, there is a separate process — subject to strict criteria to ensure patient safety — where a patient can be left in the care of the hospital.”

Doctors, though, have hit out at the proposal, claiming it could lead to serious issues during the winter months.

Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “It is not acceptable to merely drop ill and injured patients in hospital without proper handover.

“We are concerned that this winter will be difficult and this may make working relationships unnecessarily difficult.”

This comes as Labours' care minister insisted the government has "no plans" to introduce fines for missed NHS appointments, despite claims Wes Streeting is tabling the idea.

The Health Minister is quoted as saying he would be more "open-minded" to the concept of fines for no-show patients should NHS reforms fail to reduce the number of missed appointments.

However, speaking on the subject Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Care Minister & Labour MP for Aberafan Maesteg, Stephen Kinnock, refuted the claims, saying patients would not be fined.

"We do not have plans to do that, Nick If you speak to pretty much every GP in the country, they’ll tell you that the vast amount of their time is being sucked into box ticking and form filling," Mr Kinnock told Nick.

He added that trials including texts to remind patients and allow them to cancel over message had reduced no-shows by 35 per cent.

"Imagine if after that we loaded them with the responsibility for administering and enforcing a fine system," he insisted, refuting the claims.

"We’re looking at fixing the system - for example, we’ve seen pilots where GPs do what restaurants do; when you’ve made an appointment you get a text asking you to confirm the appointment."

"When they did that, they saw a 35 per cent decrease in the number of people cancelling," he explained.

The fines would not be effective, the minister insisted, as "sometimes people have an emergency" and when they "try to get through to their GP’s surgery and they can’t."

He continued that there are "missed appointments" through "no fault of their own".

It comes as the latest figures revealed that there were eight million missed hospital appointments last year - equating to one in 15 appointments.

It follows the news that NHS patients will be able to get their health records made available to any doctor as part of a new 'health passport' initiative put forward by the government.

The report coincides with Labour launching a consultation on how to fix healthcare in Britain.

Ministers are set to change laws to allow an easy-access health record to be available to NHS workers and patients through the service's app.

Labour hopes that the changes will help NHS clinicians work faster and help patients understand their own health better as it sets out to fix issues in the health service.

The plans, reported by The Times and The Guardian, come as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer launches a new consultation of patients and staff with the NHS.