MORE than 100 patients had to wait over an hour in ambulances outside Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital last year, figures obtained by the Oxford Mail show.

There were 117 cases where it took more than an hour for ambulance crews to ‘hand over’ patients.

And in one case in April 2013, a patient waited for two hours and 28 minutes to get into the hospital.

While the figures aren’t just related to accident & emergency admissions, there are concerns that A&E teams are struggling to take on patients brought in by ambulance crews. This in turn means response times could be affected.

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Hospital managers said A&E demand was rising and staff were “exceptionally busy”. They said handover times had improved, but did not give figures.

Oxford East Labour MP Andrew Smith warned those with long waits were “suffering unacceptable inconvenience and delay, which cannot be good for their medical treatment”.

He added: “This also shows the pressure frontline staff are working under in our local health services.”

There is a 15-minute A&E limit demanded by national NHS bosses.

Unison union South-East regional organiser Sarah O’Donoghue blamed a lack of beds and said: “Extended wait times increase the pressure on staff, as the number of ambulances available is then reduced.

“The wait times link into overruns, whereby staff are unable to go off duty at the time their shift ends, again increasing the pressure on them.”

Hospitals are fined £20 for each patient waiting longer than 30 minutes and £100 over an hour, the equivalent of £30,440 for the JR.

The current NHS operating framework – which sets out what the Government expects from health authorities – says quick handovers are vital.

Our figures – obtained under the Freedom of Information Act – show 21,596 JR transfers were within 15 minutes, with 7,197 from 15 to 30 minutes, 937 from 30 minutes to an hour, and 117 over an hour.

At Banbury’s Horton General Hospital, 5,026 were within 15 minutes, 104 from 30 minutes to an hour, and 20 over an hour, with the longest wait an hour and 51 minutes in May last year.

The figures provided were for A&E and other handovers.

Non-emergency ambulances can hand over patients to other acute wards in addition to accident and emergency wards.

Banbury Conservative MP Sir Tony Baldry said: “I think these figures demonstrate how very hard the ambulance service works locally, with an overwhelming majority of handovers taking place within the 15 minutes.

“I think one has to recognise that the JR and the Horton are both hospitals which are year-on-year significantly increasing the amount of their activity and the number of patients that they see.”

Healthwatch Oxfordshire chief executive Rachel Coney said communication between services can break down and lead to delays. It is seeking volunteers for a spring project to study patient transfers.

Alison Barnes, spokeswoman for Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospitals, said: “At times, our emergency departments and hospitals are exceptionally busy, and we are consistently seeing more patients than ever before.

“We have worked with the ambulance trust to refine the process for handing over patients to the emergency department teams and we have seen a definite improvement in the time it now takes for ambulance handovers.”

The trust did not give more details on its actions or give figures on recent waits.

South Central Ambulance Service spokeswoman Michelle Archer said: “We are working closely with all the hospitals in our area to continue best care for all patients.

“Over the last year we have jointly redesigned the process in handing over patients in A&E.

“This has included computerised inbound screens, dual verified time recording, rapid nurse triage processes and ambulance liaison managers working within the department to ensure we work together to keep handovers to a minimum.

“All of these measures have achieved a significant improvement in hospitals in respect of handover delays.”

It comes amid rising demand on the ambulance service. Calls went from 52,348 in April to July 2012 to 56,454 and 61,405 in the same period in subsequent years.

A key target, to get to at least 75 per cent of the most serious calls in eight minutes, was missed, with 73.6 per cent in July and 73.5 per cent in August.

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