Ambulance diversions continue due to Worcestershire A&E pressure

Ambulances continue to be diverted away from a hospital in Worcestershire to ease pressures.

Some patients who would normally be taken to Worcestershire Royal are being diverted to the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.

Figures show in March ambulances were diverted on 25 days of the month, with the measures continuing this week.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said there was "unprecedented demand" for its emergency services.

Matthew Hopkins, the trust's chief executive, said departments were "busier than ever".

"Normally at this time of the year you could argue it's a slightly quieter time, but actually we're not seeing any reduction in demand," he said.

Christine Swan from Worcester said her 97-year-old mother Hilda had to wait more than 12 hours for an ambulance.

After failing to speak to anyone from the NHS 111 service, she had called her GP and finally an ambulance as her mother had become "very unwell".

Her mother had not been prioritised as being "absolutely urgent," she said "because she was breathing, and able to talk".

"But under ambulance standards she should still have been seen within three hours."

Despite living very close to the Worcester hospital she was taken to Redditch.

Mr Hopkins apologised to the family for the "completely unacceptable" experience.

He said the hospital had had 29 new beds ready to open for the past eight weeks, but were not operational due to the failure to get a water contamination test passed.

The average time for a patient waiting in an ambulance outside the Worcestershire Royal was 150 minutes in March, and in the same month, for the first time, more than 1,000 patients had to wait more than 15 minutes to be handed over, a trust board meeting heard.

Staff were working "tirelessly" to ease the pressures, said Mr Hopkins.

"It is really the only thing we tend to talk about in the hospital is how we can reduce the risk of patients waiting for an ambulance and waiting outside to come off an ambulance into the A&E department.

"It is really all I eat, sleep and drink at the moment."

A new A&E department on the site is due to open by the end of the year.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "The latest figures underline the pressures that continue to affect all parts of the NHS and mean that patients too often experience long waits for treatment.

"But hospitals' handover delays mean that we have fewer crews on the road responding to calls.

"We are working closely with all local hospitals in the West Midlands to address this issue, while our staff and volunteers continue to do everything possible to respond as soon as we can."

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