Ambulance crews are waiting for up to 40 hours at hospitals. For patients, this means distress and possible deterioration
- Jake Jones is the pseudonym of a paramedic
There’s a corridor at my local hospital that has become very familiar to me. It runs from the ambulance entrance to the initial assessment area in A&E. Patients sit in a line on wipe-clean chairs underneath posters about hand hygiene and mask-wearing. I think of this corridor as the twilight zone, a place where time evaporates, because this is where ambulance crews are now waiting for hours, day and night, Monday to Sunday, with their patients on trolleys to be called into the emergency department to hand over.
The news that ambulance crews are experiencing delays at hospital of up to 40 hours is shocking. Every year we hear about the latest challenges facing the NHS, but these problems are now so common they feel routine. We used to talk about winter pressures, but those pressures now seem to be year-round. When I started in the ambulance service more than a decade ago, I would expect to see nine patients in a shift, allowing for journey times, assessment, treatment and handover; that figure is now more likely to be six – on a good day.
